A People Before Profit TD's calling for the return of contact tracing in schools ahead of their return later this week.
Classes are set to resume on Thursday following the Christmas break, despite concern over high Covid case numbers.
Department of Education officials and teachers unions are set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation.
TD Brid Smith says contact tracing needs to be brought back if schools are to reopen safely:
"The state has failed the whole education system by removing contact tracing some schools. They have left it to the teachers themselves, to the children themselves and to parents to inform each other about the level of infection. That's really not good enough. We know now, and there's no doubt about it, that our schools were not safe, that they haven't been safe. And so to keep repeating it, and saying that it's true doesn't make it happen."
