The Education Minister says her Department has met all the teachers unions requests to try and get children with special needs back to school.
Efforts to get teachers and students to return to the classroom this week fell through last night.
Norma Foley says the unions said they would act and accept the public health advice given to them and they didn’t.
She says her Department has met all their requests and these children have to be looked after.
"We're all very conscious that we're living in the midst of a pandemic.
"We all operate on the basis of the best public health advice available.
"Everyone who is an essential worker, and that includes our Gardaí who are still on our streets, our doctors and nurses and ambulance drivers, our men and women in our supermarkets, all of them providing an essential service - how can the provision of education for children with additional needs not be an essential service?"
