In the North, the opening of schools has been acknowledged as a key driver of a second wave of coronavirus cases. There is growing evidence in the South that the same is the case, as can be seen in the weekly case increases of people of schoolgoing age as a percentage of new cases. It has increased from a low of about 4% a week at the end of June to approximately 13% in recent weeks since schools have returned.

Last Saturday, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, ASTI, decided to ballot teachers for industrial action. They have resorted to this because they are unsatisfied with the measures that have been taken to ensure their safety and the safety of students at school. We all know that the coronavirus seeks out vulnerabilities in individuals and attacks them mercilessly, but the same is true on a societal level. It has exposed the weaknesses in an underfunded health service in particular, but the same is also true in schools. We are paying the price for the lowest rate of investment in schools in the entire OECD. We are paying the price for a pupil-teacher ratio of 26:1, compared with an EU average of 20:1, and for circumstances in which one in four schools does not have running hot water. It is incredible that, in 2020, one in four schools is without hot water.

One crucial, immediate issue is that of ventilation. We know now that airborne transmission is a key way in which the virus is spread. It is why indoor environments are particularly dangerous. A total of 84% of principals say their schools do not have adequate ventilation. Will the Government commit to rolling out a programme of retrofitting of ventilation in schools?

There is also an issue with the provision of information. Last week, the Dáil was cleared out while the Minister for Health was getting a test, but at a school in my constituency, someone tested positive and the teachers and the students who had worked side by side with the student were not even tested. It is mind-blowing. A quite outrageous story was reported a week and a half ago in Drogheda, where a teacher was notified by the Covid tracker app that they were a close contact of someone who had tested positive, but when the HSE found out they were a teacher, they were reportedly told that because they were a teacher, and because the transmission had happened in a school environment, they were no longer counted as a close contact. Why are teachers and students not being categorised as close contacts and tested in the same way as others?

Many other issues are raised in respect of safety at school. Teachers with underlying conditions and at high risk are still, despite the publicity around it and so on, being forced to go into school by a private company, Medmark. One of the cases was a teacher who has reported battling acute leukaemia, diabetes type 2, asthma, anaemia and an auto-immune disorder, and was told by Medmark they had to return to work. Will the Government give a commitment that no teachers who are high risk, and who are advised by their doctors not to work from school because they cannot safely do so, will be forced to attend work? The ballot by the ASTI is a warning to the Government. Is the Government going to heed it?

The reopening of schools has been an important milestone for children and society. The safety and well-being of staff, students and the whole school community has been of paramount importance in the Government's planning for school reopening. The Department of Education and Skills has engaged extensively with stakeholders, including the ASTI, in developing the plans for reopening. Significant funding of more than €375 million was secured and given to schools to ensure the implementation of the Return to Work Safely Protocol and the recommendations of the public health authorities in providing a safe environment for the whole school community. The Department has continuing weekly engagement with the public health authorities so that schools can remain open safely, and is also working with stakeholders, including the ASTI, in this respect. Appropriate information and guidance for schools leaders has been provided by public health experts at the HSE and the Department of Education and Skills. Detailed information on the public health approach when there have been confirmed cases on a potential outbreak at a school has been published and issued to all schools. To date, where confirmed cases have arisen, schools have co-operated with public health experts to minimise further risk to the school community. Funding for any personal protective equipment, PPE, required has also been provided to schools.

As for high-risk staff, an enhanced occupational healthcare service has been put in place. Very high-risk staff are permitted to work from home, and other staff in the normal and high-risk categories can return to the workplace provided that appropriate risk-mitigation measures are in place and implemented according to their school's Covid-19 response plan. This is in line with the approach being adopted in other areas of the public sector, including the health sector. A review process is being put in place where concerns remain and the Department will continue to engage with all education partners, including the ASTI, in the coming months.

The point is that teachers are saying that enough has not been done, and that the conditions are not safe enough for teachers, students and the wider community. They do not want to be saying this; everybody wants schools to remain open, but if this issue is not dealt with, it is only a matter of time before there are school outbreaks, with classes and whole schools being sent home, causing chaos. Teachers are blowing the whistle on unsafe conditions that will mean chaos if they are not addressed. When meat plant workers blew the whistle on their working conditions, they were ignored and dismissed by the Government until it was too late.

Rather than ignore them this time around, I urge the Government to listen to what they are saying and take action. In a concrete way, we can take the example of the high risk teachers. The answer the Minister gave accepts the fact that people such as that teacher with multiple conditions such as acute leukemia, type 2 diabetes, asthma, anaemia and autoimmune disorder can be ordered by a private company to go back to work even though his or her own doctor says it is not safe to do so. That should be withdrawn. The advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, in the USA is that when community transmission is high, better control measures are needed in schools than when it is low. That is the case now and we need urgent action by the Government to address these issues.

In this and other areas the Government cedes to public health authorities because their expertise and advice point towards the best way of managing these matters for all concerned, including teachers, pupils and the wider public. That is where such issues have to be addressed and considered. The process includes a review and it is within that which I expect the Government will listen to the ASTI and others and make sure their concerns are addressed as best they can, subject to public health advice, which is the test that has to be applied.

On the investment in schools, be it in ventilation or in other mechanisms, my understanding of that funding of €375 million is that it was spent in a short period of time but that it was spent effectively. A lot of schools turned things around and did a remarkable job and it was often the school management and board, along with teachers and pupils, who were engaged with that. I understand that this funding allowed schools to put enhanced cleaning and hygiene arrangements in place, modify buildings and rooms to facilitate physical distancing, hire extra and replacement teachers and purchase PPE through a procurement framework. If there are gaps in that, I again suggest that the review process will allow those gaps to be filled. To date, there has been no reluctance from Government to fund the work that needed to be done to back up the public health advice with physical work on the ground to help protect all of the people involved.