Improved testing and tracing system for schools from Monday, says Foley

A revamped Covid-19 testing and tracing system for schools will be led by public health officials and supplemented by department staff, Minister for Education Norma Foley has said.

“The contact details are being made available to schools on Monday morning as the teams are being rolled out,” she said.

Public health officials “have committed to weekly meetings with the unions, two of those meetings have already taken place. They will specifically address any of the issues, from a public health point of view, that are arising in the schools,” she said.

“In excess of €375 million has been made available to the schools for all the various measures that need to be put in place in terms of Covid-19. The balance of €226 million is about to be paid for the remainder of the school year. So there is no question that funding isn’t being made available,” she said.

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Speaking on the RTÉ Radio 1 This Week programme on Sunday, she said the request last week that a hand sanitiser be withdrawn from schools for safety reasons, was something she absolutely regretted doing during a mid-term break.

Last week the Department of Education ordered the withdrawal more than 50 hand sanitiser products, following a review of the products after the Department of Agriculture ordered that a hand sanitiser - ViraPro - be withdrawn due to safety issues.

Schools were ordered to stop using 22 hand sanitisers, 14 wipes, eight hand soaps and eight detergents which were removed from the department’s list of approved products because it had not been possible to “confirm their registration status as part of the review”.

Ms Foley said the timing of the removal of the products was “far, far from ideal but it was better to do it once the information came to hand, it was important to act proactively.”

The short notice angered teachers’ unions and school managers who say principals were under acute pressure to secure supplies in time for the reopening of schools on Monday.

“We immediately set up a helpline for our schools and indeed there has been great engagement with it. Up to today [SUNDAY]we have received in or around 400 calls, almost, in and around 10 per cent of what is projected by our suppliers. Ten per cent of schools bought varying quantities of products from the framework,” she said.

“The Department will continue to fund the purchase of measures that are required from the PPE framework and we’re talking in and around €300,000,” she said, while there was “no indication that any of these products are in any way harmful.”

Her decision to act for their removal was “out of an abundance of caution” The same products were “widely available in your local shops, supermarkets and across other institutions and bodies,” she said.

Leaving Certificate 2020 will go ahead on the 16th of November, continuing to December 11th with 2,818 students taking part, “less than 5 per cent of the eligible cohort,” she said.

It was “the intention that Leaving Certificate 2021 will be the traditional Leaving Certificate as we would know it. That’s what we are planning for and that’s how we are proceeding,” she said.