Over 20,000 Covid-19 cases were recorded in children last week - as a TD has called for schools to close early on Friday.
The Omicron variant is starting to surge through Ireland, with 14% of cases a result of the new strain.
The Seanad heard earlier from Fine Gael's Jerry Buttimer, who said that the virus was "running riot in our primary schools".
"I know of one school, where in a population of less than 700, there are 100 people absent from the school."
Mr Buttimer called for schools to close for Christmas on Friday.
His comments come as the latest HPSC data revealed that 20,360 cases were recorded in those aged under 18 last week.
According to the data, only 230 of these cases were linked to schools.
There were 37 new school outbreaks in 'week 49', the HPSC say.
Paul Murphy, Education Spokesperson for People Before Profit, said: "The rapid spread of the Omicron variant in Ireland and worldwide poses a very serious threat to public health and our public health system.
"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.
"This is particularly important as a precautionary measure in light of emerging evidence that the Omicron variant may be associated with higher hospitalisation rates among children.
"Closing schools early will put extra pressure on many parents. 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.
"By the time schools re-open, HEPA filters must be in place in every classroom. That means the Department of Education should purchase the necessary filters itself and distribute them to schools, rather than burdening principals with the task of purchasing them.”
Leo Varadkar believes that three areas will likely be subject to further rules in response to the Omicron variant.
The new strain of coronavirus is expected to become dominant in Ireland as soon as next week, with 14% of all infections now due to the variant.
Public health officials including the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan will hold crunch talks on whether additional measures should be implemented.
They will then issue these recommendations to government who will decide whether these advisories should be introduced.
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