A Cork primary school principal says the safety of staff and pupils has to come first as he backs calls from the Irish National Teachers Organisation for increased Covid-19 supports in primary schools.
Carl O'Brien, principal of North Monastery primary school says everyone wants to feel safe and this can be helped if more supports are rolled out for schools such as teacher cover and the examination of the use of antigen testing in schools and the review of the age restriction on face coverings.
He says now is the time to ensure that every possible way of protecting children and their families from Covid is examined in the run up to Christmas.
Speaking to RedFM News Carl O'Bren says the funding for sanitisation needs to be kept in place and schools need to be supported if children need to be sent home due to Covid.
"Makings ure that there as much flexibility as possible in terms of bringing in substitute teachers and things like that, in terms of banked days because I know in certain parts of the country if you have four or five teachers out it's very difficult to keep schools going.
"The other thing is that schools are supported particularly around where children have to be sent home because they have covid symptoms, we do everything to make sure the message is very clear for the family, that the family aren't confused about the messages that they're getting from different agencies, and that the HSE and everybody else works in cooperation to ensure that it's 'kids first' - that would be my slogan."
