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The plan to reopen schools will see extra teachers, extensive cleaning regimes and personal protective equipment put in place, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said.<\/p>\nThe plan to reopen schools will see extra teachers, extensive cleaning regimes and personal protective equipment put in place, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said.<\/p>\n
The Department of Education has been finalizing details in its planning document before it is brought to Cabinet on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Government said its priority is to see the full reopening of schools at the end of August.<\/p>\n
Mr Varadkar told RTE\u2019s the Week in Politics program on Sunday that he has read the comprehensive document in recent days and is \u201cconfident\u201d students and teachers will return by the end of next month.<\/p>\n
It involves extra teachers, it involves cleaning regimes, and involves all sorts of practices and procedures that may occur if there is a case of coronavirus in schools<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe Government\u2019s plan is ready, it\u2019s going to go to Cabinet tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt involves a really big investment in changes to schools and school buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt involves extra teachers, it involves cleaning regimes, and involves all sorts of practices and procedures that may occur if there is a case of coronavirus in schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd also special arrangements for teachers who have a chronic illness, for example. A lot of work has gone into it. There has been a lot of consultations with the unions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Varadkar also admitted plans to monitor people travelling into Ireland from countries that are not on the \u201cgreen list\u201d needs to \u201ctighten up\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to look at other measures as well, for example, the possibility of requiring people to have evidence of a negative (Covid) test prior to travelling from some countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
He raised concern that holidaymakers from Northern Ireland are allowed to travel to 59 countries without having to quarantine on their return, while the Republic\u2019s \u201cgreen list\u201d features just 15 nations.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week Stormont\u2019s health minister Robin Swann asked his cross-border counterpart to consider new laws and data-sharing agreements to help track international travelers arriving on the island.<\/p>\n
But Mr Varadkar said the Northern Ireland Executive has been \u201cvery clear\u201d it does not want to have an all-island approach to its travel arrangements.<\/p>\n
He said it will be one of the issues discussed at this week\u2019s North-South Ministerial Council meeting in Dublin.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cCertainly in any conversations that I had with the First Minister (Arlene Foster) and anything she said since, they\u2019ve been very clear that when it comes to travel they want to stick with the common travel area with Britain and won\u2019t be restricting travel between Britain and Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has again moved to defend the Government\u2019s decision not to cut the tourism VAT rate, despite persistent calls from businesses in the hospitality sector.<\/p>\n
The Government last week unveiled a seven billion euro plan to stimulate the economy.<\/p>\n
Mr Donohoe said cutting the standard rate of VAT from 23% to 21% will impact on more businesses and consumers.<\/p>\n
However, a number of firms said this will not stimulate more demand for business<\/p>\n
Mr Donohoe said: \u201cI think the thing that is most likely to cause an acceleration of the return of consumer confidence later on in the year is where we are with our public health, is where we are with our skills, and is where we are with getting employers and people confident to be back in offices later on in the year and next year.<\/p>\n