Teacher unions seek meeting  in vaccine row

Teacher unions are seeking an urgent meeting with the Department of Education and health experts to discuss the vaccine row.

A letter to senior department officials follows the decision at all three union conferences threatening industrial action if the Government does not restore priority vaccination status for teachers.

The unions say they are “keen to explore a constructive approach to the current deadlock.”

Unions are furious over a change in the vaccination roll-out to an age-based system which removed the priority listing for education staff .

They want clarity on timeframes and schedules for the vaccination of their members and “ to discuss several anomalies in the vaccine roll out which have impacted on educational settings”.

The letter from the ASTI, INTO and TUI says it would allow them to discuss, in detail, the concerns of teachers, including those who are pregnant or considered high-risk, in relation to primary, post-primary and special schools.

They say they want “to explore creative solutions to guarantee our schools can remain open in the face of the ongoing pandemic.”

The unions want schools treated as “crowded settings” allowing for inoculation of education staff, alongside the age-based approach to the inoculation of those aged between 64 and 16.

That has already been ruled out with crowded settings deemed to be locations such as direct provision centres.

Speaking today at the annual education conference of Fórsa, which represents special needs assistants (SNAs)in school, Education Minister Norma Foley again the defended the change to the age-based system

She said national and international evidence confirmed that age is the single “strongest predictor” of whether a person who contracts Covid-19 will be admitted to hospital or ICU or die as a result of their infection.

“As a result, NIAC has now recommended the vaccine programme move to an age-based rollout<” she said

“This is the latest medical and scientific evidence available. As I have said earlier this week, this is not a decision related to how we value any particular profession.

“It is about the latest scientific evidence and how we can reduce the levels of serious illness or death from this virus.”

.

Online Editors