Schools should be closed early to reduce the risk of COVID transmission ahead of Christmas, according to a Fine Gael senator.
NPHET is due to make fresh recommendations to Government tomorrow – with the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar telling Newstalk he expects to see new restrictions on social mixing.
He said the Government will look to announce any changes before the weekend – with a “few days’ notice” before any new rules kick in.
However, several Government figures, including the Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan, have said they do not expect to see schools or colleges closing early.
Speaking in the Seanad this morning however, Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer suggested COVID was “running riot” in primary schools and called for them to close for Christmas this Friday.
On The Hard Shoulder this evening, he said children would only be missing two days of teaching.
“Schools, in my opinion, have always been a source of transmission,” he said. “I never accepted the case from NPHET that there was low transmission in schools.
“The Netherlands have shut their primary schools next week as a concern around the rate of infection because of the risk of infecting older vulnerable relatives.
“I am not trying to be, in any way, scaremongering or to be populist. What I am asking for is that we would give consideration to the closing of the schools in the context of where we are with this new variant.”
Senator Buttimer said the Omicron variant appears to be more transmissible than previous strains – and noted that primary school children remain unvaccinated.
He suggested that acting now would make our schools more likely to reopen on time come January.
“There will be two and a half school days to go until Christmas,” he said.
“We are now going to be awaiting an outcome from NPHET and the Government and part of my concern is that we could see a spike in cases after Christmas.
“We could see significant pressures on our health systems. We could - I am not saying we will - see schools not reopening in January so what I am saying is why can’t we be proactive now in the days before Christmas?”
The Cork senator said he ‘fully understands and accepts’ the difficulties any closure would cause for parents – but insisted the early closure would the safest move from a public health perspective.
