Hi @thebrendapower I nearly spat my coffee all over the kitchen this morning listening to your uniformed rant about teachers.
1) Teachers did not close the schools.
2) Teachers are not keeping schools closed.
3) At no point have teachers refused to reopen schools. 1/

So why even mention unions at this point? If unions are asked about reopening schools, of course they are going to ask for safe conditions for teachers. That's why unions exist! But really all questions, at this point, should be directed at the decision makers. 2/

ie The minister and senior civil servants in the DES. They are responsible for providing the funding, equipment, staffing etc necessary to get schools reopen; not the unions or teachers. They should be answering the questions. Your anger is directed in the wrong place. 3/

Your rant was uninformed. eg you didn't understand why sub panels are important for reopening. You said that 'Irish teachers have the longest holidays' which is wrong: we have OECD average in terms of length of school year but have 15% more contact time with students. 4/

Teachers (many of who are parents too) and parents want the same thing: schools to reopen.

But you, Jennifer O'Connell, Ciara Kelly et al need to take that frustration and aim it at the DES, not the teachers or the unions.