Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements Dail Éireann — 2020-06-04 ============================================================ Leo Varadkar (FG), Dublin West As the Deputy suggested, the Minister, Deputy McHugh, might be more up to date on this matter than I am. Assuming the virus continues to move in the right direction, primary and secondary schools will open for all children at the beginning of the school year, which is the end of August. What we have not yet worked out fully is the exact arrangements around how that will happen because change will be required. For example, there will have to be hand-washing on the way in and arrangements to ensure children do not congregate at entrances and, obviously, classrooms will have to be reconfigured. We do have the advantage of being able to learn from other countries in Europe that have opened their schools. They do appear to have managed to do it. It probably would not be helpful for me to speculate about those arrangements but they are being worked on and they will be in place well before schools are due to open in August. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-06-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:20+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-06-04