Simon Jones, a member of the expert group on ventilation, said schools should apply for funding in spring to have work on ventilation done during the summer months

Letters have been received by principals across Cork City and county from a group styling itself the Common Law Court Éire which opposes measures including social distancing, mask-wearing and Covid vaccines

Sinn Féin's Cork South Central TD, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, says it shows the "disparity and inequality" of the system

INTO said they could have up to 8,000 members missing from school, including teachers who have the virus and more who are close contacts of confirmed cases

While schools will reopen, Norma Foley accepted that individual classes could be sent home due to a shortage of teachers, whether as a result of testing positive for the virus or as a close contact

Fears have been expressed about staff availability in the coming days, with unions also seeking additional safeguarding measures, including a staggered return to the classroom

ASTI call comes as ministers concede privately that Nphet advice on close contacts is 'disproportionate and unfeasible'

Substitute teacher shortage, already keenly felt before Christmas, is going to be extremely difficult to manage now Covid infections have rocketed to some 20,000 confirmed cases a day, Cork principal says

The ASTI is set to call on the Department of Health to introduce “a delayed and staggered reopening” of schools at a meeting on Tuesday

"The loss if we don't have children back in school in my mind is much larger than any other measure," the Green Party leader said

'There are also hundreds of students who have a recommendation of needing a special class place but they are in mainstream schools due to lack of spaces in autism classrooms

Union reiterates calls for the reintroduction of significant public health supports in schools

It comes as more than 13,300 children under the age of 12 tested positive for Covid-19 between December 7 and midnight on December 20

Mary Lou McDonald said: "Up the road in the North school kids get a certain number of them every week, so it can be done."

The school principal said he doesn't know which Hepa filter to get after seeing a dozen ads for them with prices between a couple of hundred euro to a couple of thousand euro

Ministers will meet to discuss the proposals this afternoon

"The important thing is to keep the rhythm and the routine going and that is our agenda."

Meanwhile, vaccination centres are set to operate 12 hours a day, seven days a week as part of efforts to escalate the booster campaign

Mr Chambers also told the show that the HSE will present an accelerated booster campaign this week

A €10m grant to improve ventilation and fund other measures in the effort to reduce viral transmission has also been pledged for the early learning and childcare sector.

Amid the rising incidence of Covid in young children, the ECDC advises parents to weigh up concerns about their physical health and wellbeing

Jennifer Horgan says there's enough real child abuse out there, stop framing mask-wearing as something to be angry about

We're led to believe that the closing of schools in the past two days was on foot of safety concerns due to Storm Barra. Cianan Brennan thinks there was a different reason for schools closing on the second day

Just 12 outbreaks were linked to primary schools last week, despite five to 12-year-olds having the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 of all the age groups

The focus now turns to how to tackle the damage left behind by record wind speeds and deluges of rain

Schools, higher education facilities and childcare services in Cork, Limerick, Clare, Waterford, Kerry, Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Galway, Mayo, Wexford and Dublin should remain shut on Wednesday

Micheál Martin warned that filters would not be a silver bullet in fighting Covid in schools, but said the Government is not against using Hepa filters

Current sixth-year students have not encountered the same level of disruption to their studies seen in 2020 and 2021, Dáil committee hears

About 22,000 free antigen tests have so far been distributed through the programme to the classroom close contacts of primary school students who receive a positive PCR test

Professor Conor O’Mahony of University College Cork said school closures last year and this year because of the pandemic had an 'absolutely appalling impact on children'

Last year, schools could ‘bank’ the hours that SETs had been used to cover mainstream absences and use them at other times

Almost 70% of the teachers who took part in study reported spending less time on RE than recommended by the primary school curriculum

All pupils at Ballintemple National School on Crab Lane, Cork, complied with the new health measures

Ireland sets standards for clean air in chicken coops but not in schools, the Dáil has heard during a debate on Covid ventilation measures.

Ventilation is critically important to keep schools safe, says principals network

On weekday mornings, students at the Cork Educate Together Secondary School (CETSS) are picked up by bus in Rochestown, close to the 22-acre site where their school should be, and brought into the city.

Children's Rights Alliance says face masks 'can interfere with a child’s wellbeing, particularly those children with conditions such as autism, children with learning difficulties or with health issues, such as asthma'

Dr Ronan Glynn, the deputy chief medical officer, said: "We’ve never said that schools are a safe environment. We’ve said that they’re a lower-risk environment."

The Department of Education says “a potential suitable site has been identified with Cork City Council"

The overall number of outbreaks has fallen for the second week in a row, but schools, workplaces and residential institutions are seeing a rise

The total number of cases has to be seen in the context of a school with a student population of 765, said the principal

The department had sought temporary permission for the car park school for a period of no longer than five years.

Given the current daily case numbers, and the introduction of the five-day rule for household contacts, the likelihood is that there will be more classes sent home as schools struggle to source cover for teachers who are sick or isolating

Tweaks to our behaviour, such as mask-wearing, will help quell Covid — but further restrictions now seem almost inevitable