Call to close primary schools on Friday as Covid 'running riot' in classes

On Tuesday, the Department of Education said it had no plans to alter the Christmas school break or to close early. Picture: Larry Cummins

The Seanad has heard calls to shut primary schools early on Friday ahead of Christmas in the interest of public health. 

Speaking in the Seanad on Wednesday morning, Fine Gael senator Jerry Buttimer called on Education Minister Norma Foley to close schools this weekend.

On Tuesday, the Department of Education said it had no plans to alter the Christmas school break or to close early.

"There is no evidence to suggest that extending school holidays has a public health rationale," a spokesman for the department said. 

“Covid is running riot in our primary schools,” Mr Buttimer told the Seanad on Wednesday.

“Whether it's through close contacts or actual physical cases, absenteeism in primary schools is at an all-time high,” he said.

I know of one school, where in a population of less than 700, there are 100 people absent from the school.

Mr Buttimer said he was asking the minister to close the schools early “in the interest of public health”. 

“We all know there will be intergenerational mixing over Christmas and to stop and to limit the spread of Covid, I'm asking the minister to close up primary schools on Friday to allow for a planned reopening in January, [and] to prevent the spread of Covid-19.” 

He added: “Our primary schools are probably the one place where we have the most unvaccinated people, young people in particular, gathering at any one time.”

“They are wearing masks but I would ask and I really am appealing to the Minister of Education to close up primary schools on Friday as a public health measure to support the good work being done by Government and the HSE.” 

On Wednesday morning, Dr Mary Favier, Covid lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), said there was no one answer on how to tackle Covid, when asked if schools should close early this weekend.

Multi-layered approach

The pandemic required a multi-layered approach, she added. Masks, hand washing, distancing, ventilation all played a role and schools were also a factor.

It was always going to be a balance, if children were out of school how would parents go to work and staffing levels in the health service were always an issue, she told RTÉ.

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Separately, People Before Profit has also called for schools to close for Christmas this Friday. Paul Murphy, the party’s education spokesman, has also called on the Department of Education to ensure Hepa filters are in place in all classrooms for re-opening in January.

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant in Ireland and worldwide “poses a very serious threat to public health and our public health system”, he said.

A simple measure to slow the spread, act as a partial circuit breaker before Christmas, and give more time to our booster vaccine programme to roll out is to close the schools on Friday for Christmas, as is being done in many other European countries.” 

Closing schools early will put extra pressure on many parents, he added.

“They should be enabled to take force majeure leave, on full pay, if they have to miss work in order to mind children. This should be done before the end of the week by ministerial regulation under the Parental Leave Act, 1998.”