Stormont split over when children should return to school

Dear reader,

The Stormont Assembly looks to be riven with division over when all children will return to the classroom in Northern Ireland.

After Arlene Foster intervened on Monday night to say that the date for schools returning should be revisited in light of Boris Johnson’s announcement in England, Tuesday brought a further frank exchange of views.

Former Stormont minister Edwin Poots, and his fellow DUP MLA Paul Givan, both questioned the decision of the Executive to delay the return of schools here.

Education Minister Peter Weir had previously indicated that he was in favour of all children returning on March 8 as they are doing in England. However, he claims that view wasn’t supported by the other political parties.

On Tuesday afternoon Northern Ireland’s chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride, who has previously spoken about Covid-19 restrictions lasting for another year, said he remains of the view that schools should return in a “stepwise process”.

It also emerged on Tuesday that the so-called South African variant of coronavirus has been detected in Northern Ireland, with three confirmed cases.

Encouragingly, the number of new cases of Covid-19 remains comparatively low here, with another 225 infections detected in the last 24 hours.

Sadly, there were another five Covid-19 related deaths.

Alistair Bushe

Editor

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