Rose Conway-Walsh Asks How Students Will Return to Campus Safely

Minister, can you tell me the amount of time that students can expect to have on campus when they return in September, it's certainly welcome that third level students will be back on campus, but so far we have seen little detail, the IUA, THEA and ETBI are before the Education Committee as you know today, where I'll have a chance to get greater detail there, but can you provide details on the associated funding to help the institutions to safely return, because reopening and safe return to campus, the HEA's are taking on a huge responsibility there, so what funding can they expect? Thanks to Deputy Conway Walsh, so we've been discussing the required funding for the safe return to college, not just for the institutions, but also for the students, and the really good work done by the Student Wellbeing Engagement Group that I asked the USI to chair, the short answer to that question is I expect to receive approval for additional funding from Cabinet on the 19th of July, so we'll have clarity on that, then my officials are engaging with Deeper, as we speak on that matter Deputy, as you know, and I want to thank you for your support on this and for attending the webinar we hosted, where we invited opposition spokespeople, students unions, university presidents, staff representatives, to come to be briefed on the safe return, which is our document for the plan for a safe return to on-site further and higher education research, which has been endorsed by the Chief Medical Officer, is in line with public health guidance, our students and our staff are going back to campuses, and that's the essential nature of higher and further education and training and research activities, and in that context provides for comprehensive on-site activity for the next academic year, with almost full-scale on-site activities. Institutions and providers in the sector have committed to ensuring that all learners across all areas have significantly scheduled on-site learning in the forthcoming year, and indeed government has now deemed on-site education as essential. Under the plan, larger-scale lectures will take place on-site if the public health situation allows, and that is the outstanding question being honest, where we said we would return to Cabinet probably on the 19th of July to make a determination on larger-scale lectures. Obviously, if they do go ahead, safety measures will need to be in place, including whatever the advice will be around social distancing, face masks and ventilation, in accordance with that prevailing public health advice. Contingency planning in the event of a more restrictive public health environment is also being prepared by the sector. So what we're basically saying is, at a minimum, and I know we've been through this in other fora, at a minimum a student can expect to come back to campus for everything other than the large-scale lectures, and at a maximum we'll manage to bring back the large-scale lectures as well. But we are saying to our students that at a minimum, no matter what happens with COVID, we're getting you back to campus for certain activities, and that's the difference between this year and last year. We're able to do it on the basis of the success of our vaccination program and the advice of the Chief Medical Officer. Thank you Minister. Deputy Conway. Thank you Minister for that and also for the briefing previously. Maybe just to refer to my previous question in terms of the extra lab places, you know, in terms of being able to facilitate social distancing or whatever needs to be done there. I think we'll all be looking forward to the 19th of July for this funding and for otherwise. But the funding is really important, as you'll know as well, to have the support for wellbeing and for mental health on campus. Minister, can I ask you, if a student is a close contact, will they have to isolate even if they are fully vaccinated? I know there's talk in Britain at this at the moment that maybe they won't be classed as a close contact. And has provision been made for those who are medically vulnerable or those who have to isolate? So will lectures be able to be part delivered online and part delivered for those who can be in the lecture halls? I think if we could get some clarity around that and some reassurance around that. Students have a lot of questions regarding what it will be like in practice for them returning to college. Thank you Deputy. Minister. I mean the short answer to any questions in relation to what will a student have to do or a staff member is that we will follow the prevailing public health advice at the time. So the way I think of it in my own mind is if we see our colleges as effectively small towns or indeed not so small towns in many ways, the rules that would apply in any town should apply there as well. So to give you an example, if the restaurant can be open in a certain scenario outside the gates of the college campus, well then the college canteen can open on the same basis. If the pub down the road can open, well then the college bar can open. If sports activities can happen in your local town, sports activities can happen on the same rules. So that's what we're trying to basically do. Say is look we've seen the success of how we safely reopen and manage COVID in a town or a village, let's now apply that model. So anything to do with what social distancing will be required, what ventilation rules will be followed, what you do if you're a close contact, how you treat a vaccinated person etc. will all be based on the prevailing public health advice. But there is significant optimism from our Chief Medical Officer and I've spoken to him directly on this. Remember we're living in a country where we expect to have effectively all adults who wish to be fully vaccinated, fully vaccinated by the end of August, weeks before college comes back. Thank you Minister, you get a chance to come back in. Thank you for that Minister. And I completely understand that we cannot predict, particularly in terms of the Delta virus and the impact that that might have. But I think in terms of people making plans for accommodation, I know we have improved that somewhat during the year. But if we can give as much certainty as we possibly can, notwithstanding that there will be variables there. I just need to get back to the situation of how many extra lab places, physical infrastructure. I know money was allocated last year. What was that capital spend spent on? What were the outcomes of that? How many more students will it facilitate? How many more new students are we facilitating this year? Are the lecturers in place for that? Have extra lecturers being recruited across the board? I just need reassurance that we have the capacity there to address what we're trying to do, so that we don't run into problems. A bottleneck of problems come September, October. Thank you Deputy Minister. And I think we have statements next week in the Dáil on this, so I don't have the figure in relation to lab places to hand. We give devolved capital grants to each institution, so I'd have to go to the institutions through the HEA to get that information, but I can certainly do that for the Deputy. You referenced just kind of recorded lectures, and sorry I accidentally overlooked that. That's something I'd like to see happen. I've heard our staff representatives say they're not against it, but they understandably have every right to wish to sit down and engage on it. I'd like to see that happen with the institutions. It's definitely benefits for students who are medically vulnerable, but as you say, also possibly for any student, if you have the benefit of attending a lecture and then also being able to look back over that lecture later. The other issue which we haven't touched on yet, which is important, is the rapid testing. What a lot of people are talking about or considering maybe they do rapid testing, we're doing it. So there's a programme underway at the moment in four institutions, and they're also reaching out to more institutions, where up to 8,000 staff and students are being tested twice a week with two different tests. So we'll see the benefits of that quite quickly, and by the autumn, certainly before college resumes, we'll be able to make a decision on whether there's a need for a broader rollout of that. So that's an extra tool we could have in our token as well. Thank you, Minister. But I'll get that information. Thank you.