Sinn Féin's calling for contingency plans to be urgently put in place in case the Leaving Cert exams can't go ahead.
There are fears these students won't have in-person classes until after St Patrick's Day.
But the government says it still intends to have full, written exams for Junior and Leaving Cert pupils in June.
Sinn Féin's education spokesman and Cork TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, says that may not be possible if the current Covid-19 trends continue.
"I think fifth years have been an extremely difficult two years in some respects - they've been more challenged than last year's Leaving Certs in terms of the times it's been there, and I don't think it's reasonable for them to expect to have the course covered.
"At this point in time the changes that the Minister has made to the exams aren't anywhere near far enough, she needs to be going an awful lot further, and I think that we need now to be looking at the alternatives certainly as a contingency."
