Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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634. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of CO2 monitors which have been delivered to schools; the number left to deliver; the deadline for delivery; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42912/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Managing ventilation is just one of a suite of public health measures in place to keep our schools safe. Updated guidance for schools on Practical Steps for the Deployment of Good Ventilation Practices in Schools was provided at the end of May following the work of an expert group that carefully considered the role of ventilation in managing COVID-19.

A copy of the guidance is published at .

The over-arching approach in the guidance is for schools to have windows open as fully as possible when classrooms are not in use (e.g. during break-times or lunch-times and also at the end of each school day) and partially open when classrooms are in use.

The guidance outlines that Carbon Dioxide (CO2) monitors can play a part in providing a useful general indication that areas/rooms may not be adequately ventilated. They can enable occupants to become familiar with the impacts of activities, outdoor weather and window openings on levels of good ventilation.

The Department procured a number of portable monitors that are being distributed to schools in August and September – between 2 and 20 at primary level and between 20 and 35 at post-primary level depending on school size at an estimated overall cost of €4 million. This will ensure that a CO2 monitor will be available for use in every classroom in Ireland. The monitors are portable, simple to use, and will give a digital reading. The provision of portable CO2 monitors provides schools with the flexibility to focus their use to those rooms where most beneficial to inform strategies for optimising ventilation in the school.

Deliveries of CO2 monitors to schools commenced in the third week of August and are expected to be completed by mid-September. In total, it involves over 35,000 CO2 monitors being distributed to , primary and post-primary schools in the Free Scheme and schools approved on the basis of their application in the Fee Charging sector.

Smaller sized schools will receive their full allocation in one delivery, with medium and larger sized schools receiving two deliveries. This approach maximises the number of schools that are provided with monitors as early as possible.

The target remains to have all monitors delivered by the middle of September.