Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 December 2020
28. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Education the provisions in place by her Department to police and address occurrences (details supplied); if students can be refused entry to school grounds; and if An Garda Síochána can be contacted to verify if the student in question has been overseas and take the necessary action with the child’s parents. [40260/20]
View answerAccording to Government guidelines, students must not present themselves at schools if they have travelled internationally. Several reports have indicated that a small minority of parents are disregarding these guidelines. What measures has the Department of Education taken to counter these occurrences? Can students be refused entry to schools? Can An Garda be contacted to verify whether students have been overseas and can gardaí take action against parents?
From Monday, 9 November, Ireland has implemented the EU co-ordinated traffic lights approach for those travelling into Ireland. In general this requires those returning to or entering Ireland from orange or red list countries to restrict their movements for 14 days. This includes school staff, parents and students, including students coming from abroad to attend school in Ireland. Restricting movements means staying indoors in one location and avoiding contact with other people and social situations as much as possible.
Schools have a duty of care to all their students and staff members. If a school has reasonable grounds for believing that its duty of care toward its staff and students is being undermined, it can refuse access to the student or staff member concerned during this period.
The whole school community is working together to create a positive and safe environment for teaching and learning in the particular and often challenging context of Covid-19. Ensuring that all students and their parents are made aware of the public health requirements as they relate to schools is very important. My Department, working with the education partners, has developed a range of information and resources for parents and students to reinforce the importance of the safety control measures in place in schools to minimise the risk of spread of infection. These measures are observed by all students. Contacting An Garda Síochána to establish the travel arrangements of students and staff is not considered appropriate.
Can the Minister tell me who is responsible? Is it the principal, the teacher, the board of management or the chairperson? Does a teacher have to make these decisions? Ideally these children should be at school, but they are allowed to roam the streets without supervision during the day. Nobody wants that. I understand that a person must fill out a Covid-19 passenger locator form before entering the country. I am aware of a case where more than 50 passengers returned to the country from a wedding in Spain, taking a flight to the UK and a ferry from there. Members of many of these families were attending schools. How are the regulations enforced? Are schools issued instructions for such cases? Who makes the decisions? I need answers to these questions. We should issue guidelines to let schools know who should make these decisions.
I cannot speak to the specific case the Deputy has raised because I am not familiar with it. In general, schools have a duty of care to their students and staff, as I have outlined. If there is a view that this duty of care is being impeded by the return of a student who has travelled abroad and is not observing whatever restrictions have been deemed necessary at that time, the school can act. Schools have every right to refuse access to anyone who has not fulfilled his or her obligation to restrict his or her movements. That has operated well throughout the school system. There are 4,000 schools with 100,000 staff and 1 million students. This issue has not been raised with the Department on an ongoing basis. As in all contexts, schools have sufficient practicality, wisdom and know-how to deal with these incidents. Parents have also exercised very good judgment. They have been highly responsible in how they have operated within the Covid-19 guidelines pertaining to travel and to any other areas.
I acknowledge that we are talking about a minority, but this minority is holding communities and their businesses to ransom. The resilience shown by communities and businesses must be commended. I encourage the residents of towns and the surrounding areas to support the businesses which have shown courage and strength in keeping their doors open while making a loss. An Garda Síochána continues to work against this minority in our communities. A special mention goes to newly appointed Superintendent Aileen Magner and her team.
We have spoken about parents and children who have abided by all the guidelines. I am talking about the minority who have no regard for their lives or those of the people around them. I am concerned with how they are policed and how they affect the communities around them when they are not policed.
I thank the Deputy. I appreciate the sincerity with which he makes this point. I reiterate that if a school has any suspicion that its duty of care is impeded by the actions of anyone within the school community it has an absolute right to refuse access. I have every confidence that those measures will be implemented appropriately by schools.
