On GRMA day, a day when school staff were being thanked nationally, a Board of Management made a decision, in the interests of school and community safety, to close the school that they are responsible for. A decision to close a school is only made in extreme circumstances.

Covid 19 was spreading on the school. School staff were being asked to stay at home and self isolate. Substitute teachers could not be found. Closing the school made sense. (Remember the entire Dáil vacated the Exhibition Centre when one Dáil member went for a test.)

Did the Department of Education then jump in and help? Did they organise to send children home, fund the necessary deep clean of the school, help to fund the remote learning that would now be used and provide support to a staff that needed it?

No. They simply said open that school up again. We don't care that you have no staff, we don't care if there are positive cases in the school. We don't care that the entire local community is compromised. This is the reality of running a school in a pandemic. It is shocking.

As a school Principal I stand in full solidarity with Mark and his team. The BOM are not concerned with political expediency and the need to keep pushing the untruth that schools are safe. They want what is best for the school community. I stand with them and wish them well.