A mother of a child with hearing loss has said she is “devastated” by the likely introduction of mask wearing for some primary school children.

Nphet has recommended that children in third class and up should wear masks while in school.

Annie Colleran said her daughter, Maeve, relies on lip reading to be able to learn and communicate with her teacher and peers.

“I’m absolutely gutted and devastated to hear that news. My situation is I have five children, but my middle child, Maeve, has hearing loss and she wears cochlear implants. So, she really relies on lip reading as well as hearing to be able to communicate and to be able to hear her peers.

“She’s in a situation where she’s had to have teachers with masks on for the last two years and it has really impacted her and other kids like her who have hearing loss and really all children with additional needs in the classroom,” she told RTÉ’s Liveline this afternoon.

Ms Colleran’s daughter is currently in second class. “It won’t apply to her straight away,” she said, but told how she fears that this measure will last for some time.

Ms Colleran added that: “Peer to peer learning is just so important for her, sitting in a classroom with kids with masks on is just really going to impact on her and on all other children who have hearing loss. I’m just so sad for them,” she told host Joe Duffy.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan’s team has recommended that for “at least two weeks” children under the age of 12 should avoid indoor gatherings such as school plays, sleepovers and birthday parties.

Nphet has also recommended the wearing of face masks for children aged nine years and older on public transport and in indoor settings.

Ms Colleran said all of these events are “crucial” to a child’s development.

“I feel like it’s very easy to cancel all these things in our children’s lives and they sound flippant, but these things are really crucial to their development and they’re the things that we all had growing up. Our children are being hit first really and it just doesn’t seem fair or right,” she said.

Another Liveline caller said her granddaughter complained of feeling very cold while in school as a result of the windows being open for ventilation purposes.

The caller said she is worried about children trying to learn in those circumstances.

“She said ‘Nanny I couldn’t feel my feet today in school’. She said all the windows are open and that they’re not allowed to have their coats on. Not long before that my daughter was sent to take this little girl out of school because she coughed once.

“When my daughter went to collect her the child was distraught because someone had placed a mask on her, which I know is protocol, but she was so upset because she couldn’t go to her tennis that day.

"She loves school, she never misses it but to think that children are sitting in classrooms where all the windows are open and they’re freezing cold I’m worried about pneumonia at this stage,” she said.

The new rules on masks are to remain in place until at least mid-February under the advice sent to the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

The Government will consider the advice in the coming days ahead of a Cabinet meeting next week.