Reacting to today’s Government announcement on the extension of Level 5 restrictions, Gary Gannon TD, Social Democrats spokesperson for Education, said:
“Vague promises to reopen schools as early as possible will be of little comfort to parents and students. In the absence of an agreement with all stakeholders, the Government’s stated intention to prioritise the phased reopening of special schools and classes continues to be aspirational.
“There have been two failed attempts to achieve this shared ambition – what we needed to hear today was a clear plan that will provide a pathway to the safe reopening of these schools.
“The Government cannot afford to let our most vulnerable children down for a third time. Equally, we need to be given a specific target of daily cases that would allow our schools to reopen safely, with a full outline of what additional protections will be needed for students and staff in light of the new UK variant of the virus.”
January 26, 2021