Minister for Education Orders Schools to Stay Closed

The Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe TD, has ordered all primary and post-primary schools to remain closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week due to the very bad weather.
Minister O’Keeffe said that he took the decision in the interest of the health and safety of school children and their parents.
The Minister took the decision following a meeting today of the Government’s emergency planning group. Minister O’Keeffe said: “I took the decision to close all schools based on my concern for the health and safety of school children in these very challenging weather conditions. I considered, in particular, the forecast for snowfall on Sunday and Monday which will cause further disruption. Although most schools decided not to open this week and many more will take the same decision next week, I wanted to bring clarity and certainty to the position for parents and students by telling all schools to close. While it may be that some schools would have been in a position to open depending on the weather, I consider on balance that the responsible and prudent approach at this stage is to close schools in the interest of safety. The situation will be reviewed on Tuesday”.
Third level institutions will decide for themselves whether or not to open next week – based on local conditions.