Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has said that the majority of secondary school students won’t return to school until after Easter.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher-Hayes, the minister said, “It is my understanding that the focus is on primary school children and Leaving Cert classes and we will see how those four weeks [across March] have impacted.
“That will take us up until the Easter break and at that stage, a decision will be taken in relation to secondary school classes outside of Leaving Cert classes.
“As things currently stand, I think the majority of secondary school children will probably be returning to education following the Easter holidays.”
A decision is due from Cabinet on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Táiniste Leo Varadkar has said that schools, childcare and ECCE programmes will reopen in March on a phased basis. This means that junior infants, senior infants and first and second class could return on March 1 and secondary school students will do so at a later date.
Speaking on RTE News One today, he added that the vaccine programme is set to be ramped up and explained that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee outlined that under 70s with underlying health issues can be prioritised on the list.
An Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in an interview with The Irish Mirror that “severe” restrictions will remain in place until the end of April ahead of the release of the revised Living with Covid plan next week. He said, “We’ve already certainly indicated that beyond Easter we’ll look at it again but until the end of April you can look at significant restrictions and we’ll review it after that then because we’ll have to see where we are.”
