Phased reopening of schools from March 1 agreed by cabinet sub-committee

'Not possible' 

Earlier today, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin said a full reopening of schools is not being considered as having a million people back at the same time is "not possible" because of the new variants of the virus.

"I've already had soundings from public health and Nphet in relation to their sense of this. So we will be reopening schools on a phased basis. The indications are that's likely to be the beginning of March," he said.

The public health authorities want to do this on a gradual basis, because they want to monitor the impact of increased mobilisation of people on the spread of the disease.

"Say we open schools, say junior infants, senior infants, first and second class potentially, public health will want to monitor that over a two week period, to see what was the impact of that on the spread of the virus."

Union anger

However, the Irish Examiner understands there is anger among unions involved in the back-to-school talks that dates have been announced while the agreement is still under discussion.

Those involved in talks have been asked to respect a confidentiality agreement by not providing commentary on the process in the media.

These talks have been described as “moving in the right direction” but not yet fully finalised.

“It’s not helpful to see info like dates being put out into the public domain while parties are respecting the agreement,” one well-placed source told the Irish Examiner.

“It is not helpful. It’s creating needless worry and frustration for the sake of waiting a few days and then everyone would have clarity.” 

The plans are similar to that of Northern Ireland, where the Executive announced today that children in primary 1 to primary 3 (aged four to seven) will go back to school on 8 March.