There's a warning that children going back to school this year represents a "totally different ballgame" than usual for immunocompromised parents.
Primary and secondary schools are set to reopen at the end of this month for the new school year, after being closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, one father is calling for the Department of Education to consider the implications for parents with serious medical conditions.
Michael Rymne says he's nervous about his children's imminent return to school as his wife Jan has a rare condition called CLL.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Michael explained: "CLL is short for chronic lymphocytic leukemia... it's a blood cancer, and it's an incurable blood cancer, but it's also a cancer of the immune system.
"Since COVID has started - even before the lockdown had started in Ireland - Jan has pretty much been on lockdown herself.
"I think it's almost five months now since Jan has left the house, apart from walking the dogs in the evening... she hasn't gone to any shops or social gatherings."
Two of their four children - aged 12 and 15 - will be going back to school at the end of the month, and for Michael there's "no question" that will be the case as they need their education.
However, he said: "We have felt throughout this whole process that the immune-compromised like Jan have never really been included in the guidance that has been given.
"This has rolled on now with the schools opening in a few weeks - there's no talk about the children who are going to school that may have immune-compromised parents at home, and the risk of them bringing the virus back into the home."
'Risk mitigation'
Jan was diagnosed with CLL in 2011, and was very sick for three years.
The family has lived a life of "risk mitigation" since then.
Michael observed: "Since 2011, we kind of know that when Jan would get sick it's more than likely because our children were going into school and picking up the infections in school and bringing them into the house.
"COVID is a totally different ballgame."
He said studies have shown that CLL patients are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcome.
He noted that while he has read through the school reopening guidelines, there's "no mention" about children that are going into school who have parents at home who are immune-compromised.
