Tanaiste Leo Varadkar last night warned COVID-19 outbreaks will occur in schools when they reopen.
Thousands of pupils across Ireland are gearing up to return to class at the end of this month having had no formal education since March.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Varadkar braced the country for infections in schools and colleges.
He said: “I can guarantee you in a few weeks time we’re going to see clusters occur in schools.
“It’s almost inevitable that if they open there will be clusters in some schools.
“So I just think we need to, raise the understanding among people that this is a highly-infectious virus and everyone doing the right thing still means that some people may get the virus or there may be clusters in different places.”
The Tanaiste said he cannot give an “absolute guarantee” that schools will reopen for the new term.
“What I can say is that countries that have an incidence of the virus at a much higher level than ours, have managed to open schools and open them successfully, and keep them open.
“There’s a huge amount of work being done on this, a huge focus from government, the education partners as well to get our schools open, and to enable them to stay open,” he told RTÉ’s Open For Business.
the right thing still means that some people may get the virus or there may be clusters in different places.”
The Fine Gael leader said he cannot give an “absolute guarantee” that schools will reopen for the new term.
He told RTE’s Open For Business: “What I can say is that countries that have an incidence of the virus at a much higher level than ours, have managed to open schools and open them successfully and keep them open.
“There’s a huge amount of work being done on this, a huge focus from the Government, the education partners as well to get our schools open, and to enable them to stay open.”
Getting children back to school after six months out has been a key priority for the Government. But with safety concerns centring on campus transmision and maintaining social distancing, this new term’s return has been unprecedented in the challenges it has posed for teachers, pupils and parents.
