Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 January 2026
359. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of schools that reported closures, outside of planned closures such as end of term, bank holidays and so on, in each of the years 2024 and 2025; and the number of school days lost in each of those years as a result. [3275/26]
View answerThe decision to close a school in response to a severe weather event or in other unforeseen circumstances is a matter for individual school management authorities around the country, taking into consideration the full guidance and direction available from the principal response agencies. Individual school management authorities are best placed to do this in light of local weather conditions, which can vary significantly in regions. Any decision to close is taken in the interest of child safety, having assessed the local risks and having consulted, as appropriate, with school transport operators.
Guidance is available to schools on responding to severe weather on the Winter Ready website provided by the Office of Emergency Planning as part of the whole of government response to severe weather experienced in recent years via the following link: gov.ie - Schools and Early Learning and Childcare Services Severe Weather – Be Winter Ready
The Departments guidance for schools in relation to making up for time lost due to unforeseen closures, which includes unforeseen closures due to weather conditions, is set out in appendix B of Circular 0072/2022 available via the following link: link: gov.ie - Standardisation of the School Year in respect of Primary & Post-Primary Schools for the years 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26
As outlined in Circular 0072/2022, significant flexibility is given to schools to make up tuition hours lost due to unforeseen circumstances. It is the responsibility of individual boards of management to ensure that the terms of circular 0072/2022 are met in full.
Schools are not required to report every closure to the Department and so the data requested by the Deputy is not available. However the Department has commenced work on scoping an IT solution to enable schools to advise the Department of closures or other issues. Officials from my Department will engage with schools and other relevant stakeholders to identify the most appropriate mechanism to facilitate real time data being available on school closures.
