Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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570. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the guidance for lab health safety for secondary schools was last updated; if there are plans to update guidance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23516/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department has produced a number of documents in relation to safety in school laboratories, including Safety in School Science and Safety in the School Laboratory (most recently updated in 2001) which remain relevant. The introduction of revised science subject specifications does not alter their relevance as the key principles of safety in a science laboratory remain the same.

Detailed guidelines produced by the Health & Safety Authority (HSA), in collaboration with the education sector, provide practical assistance to school authorities including advice and recommendations on how to implement and operate Health & Safety, including Fire Safety, systems in their schools. The HSA website provides a number of useful resources for schools, including one published in 2024, for primary and post primary school staff and post primary school students to raise awareness of the safe use and management of chemicals in schools.

The Board of Management of a School or Education and Training Board (ETB) is responsible, as employer, for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of its employees and of those directly affected by the work activities of the school. Every Board of Management and ETB is required by law to have a safety statement for its school/s. The safety statement is a live written document which contains the detail of how safety, health and welfare is managed in a school. It includes the school structures, planning activities, practices, procedures, and resources for implementing and maintaining safety, health and welfare.

Individual school authorities are best placed on a day to day basis to monitor and ensure that their Health & Safety systems and practices will contribute to ensuring that schools are safe and suitable environments for the entire school community.