Senator Gerard Craughwell - speech from 16 Oct 2020

Go raibh maith, Goetheir. Look, I want to compliment my colleague on his speech. I totally agree with everything you just said. We were promised when the schools reopened, Leader, that there would be no particular problem with respect to substitutes, etc. I've had a number of principals contact me from primary schools over the last few days about the difficulty in finding substitutes. Now, I didn't teach in primary schools, so I'm not sure the way the system works, but I understand there's a primary group of substitutes and a secondary group of substitutes. One principal told me of ringing 34 substitutes from the secondary list and being unable to get a substitute into the school. Now, we're being told constantly by the minister that schools are not a source of transmission of virus. And I agree that schools and the discipline in schools is excellent. Take a walk up the street by the Shelburne Hotel any day when schools are out and watch the hundreds of kids coming towards you. I'm over 60. I'm petrified of this virus, but I've met people in my local area who are absolutely petrified of children coming out of schools. And we have a number of schools around our area. So I want to propose an amendment to the order of business today, where the minister for education can come here and explain to the house what plans are in place to ensure that there are substitutes, sufficient number of substitutes available to principals in the country in national schools. And secondly, I want to be given the scientific evidence that says that children don't spread the virus for there is a scientific piece of research that was published only yesterday and it says that children are super spreaders. So the bottom line on it is, I want somebody to come to the house today and minister for education is the one who told me in the Senate that schools are not a problem. They're a problem if we don't have substitutes and they're certainly a problem if we don't have a way of marshalling them as they leave the school. Thank you.