Government’s 'firm intention' that schools will reopen on January 11, says Norma Foley

Three-quarters of schools had not had to engage with public health services, the Education Minister said.

Minister for Education Norma Foley has said that it was the Government’s “firm intention” that schools would reopen on January 11.

There had been only 94 cases of Covid in the last school week where data is available out of the 1.1m strong school community, she told RTÉ radio’s News at One.

Three-quarters of schools had not had to engage with public health services, she added.

When asked if Nphet had recommended that schools reopen, Ms Foley said that they had not.

The two to three additional days of closure of the schools meant that families would have been living with the new restrictions for over 10 days and would have had the opportunity to reduce their contacts before the children return to school, she explained.

“We looked at the seriousness of the situation that society finds itself,” she added. 

Keeping schools closed for a few days longer after Christmas was not due to any safety concerns around schools themselves, but as a means to help people minimise their contacts overall.

The NIAC priority list for those to be vaccinated included the school community staff, she said, but nursing homes and healthcare workers were first on that list.

Earlier, Justice Minister McEntee stressed that schools are “not not opening because it’s not safe to do so”.

She said Nphet “has been very clear that our schools are safe” and that they have been managed “extremely well”.