Schools reopening 'under constant review', children's minister says

Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman, who said he doesn't believe it is necessary to further refine the list of essential workers. File Picture.

The Children's Minister says that it "would not be beneficial" to further refine the list of essential workers who can access childcare under Level 5 Covid restrictions.

Parents, unless they are essential workers, have been asked to keep their children home from creches and childcare this week. 

The Government last week announced it would postpone the resumption of the free preschool ECCE scheme to free up staff at creches to care for children of essential workers. 

However, the list of those workers is now far larger than in the first national lockdown in March.

Childcare providers say that they will need supports to carry out this work even with attendances set to be between 20% and 50%. 

Speaking on RTÉ radio, Roderic O'Gorman said the government's current list, though extensive, was sufficient. 

"I don't think creating a separate list, just for the childcare sector would be beneficial.

"The list of essential services at Level Five is the list that's been used over the last number of months, as the basis for decisions about all workers and this is the list that the government works on and it's the list that we are asking childcare providers to use to make decisions with regards to their admissions over the next number of weeks."

Speaking on schools, Mr O'Gorman said that their opening next Monday was "under constant review". He praised the work of teachers and boards of management but said that the longer school closure earlier this year was "bad for children".

"I think the levels of and incidence of Covid in schools and pressures have been low compared to other sectors of society. And that's because of the way in which the guidance has been implemented.

"We wanted to make a sustained effort to reduce movements this week, and as such the reopening of schools was postponed to January 11, and that situation is under constant review."

The minister said that the "numbers (of hospitalisations) are worrying" and that there was "a sense of nervousness there". 

He added, however, that the rollout of vaccinations were "significant", saying that 17,000 healthcare workers were set to be vaccinated this week.

Mr O'Gorman said that he believed that the country "needs to be ready to do more" in terms of new restrictions, but said that the latest set of restrictions "needed time".

He said that if those restrictions did not work, new restrictions would be needed.