Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe yesterday appealed to school boards of management to take account of conditions facing parents bringing their children to school as he rescinded a national decision to close all primary and secondary schools until Wednesday.
Mr O'Keeffe announced today it was now up to local boards of management to decide if they wished to open their schools tomorrow but he urged them to consider not just the conditions within the school grounds but the approach roads and transportation difficulties.
"What I will say to boards of management, yes, have regard to the conditions within your own school grounds but please take into account the dangers that would be inherent for parents transporting children to schools, for those children on footpaths that are icy and dangerous.
"Always have regard for the health and safety of the children because that's most important at the end of the day," said Mr O'Keeffe.
He defended his decision to issue a national directive on Friday ordering 4,000 primary and secondary schools to clsoe.
Mr O'Keeffe said Friday's decision was the correct one given the forecasts for snow for yesterday but cicumstances had changed yesterday with a thaw developing in the east and it was only sensible to allow local boards of management to decide if their schools should open.
"Seeing people in their 30s and 40s falling on footpaths, it struck me on Friday that if a mother or a child had that kind of fall, knocking their head off the pavement, then we'ld have had a serious situation and people would be asking why didn't I close the schools."
Mr O'Keeffe said support for his decision had been widespread on Friday with editorials in the newspapers on Saturday, the INTO, principals groups and management bodies all commending him for the decision to issue to the national directive to schools to close.
He rejected criticism by Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes that he had not attended Friday's meeting of the national emergency committee before making his decision and said his officials had attended and had briefed him fully.
Mr Hayes claimed the Minister had been been forced into a "humiliating climbdown" by reversing the closure of all schools.
Mr O'Keeffe said that while his Department had yet to receive reports from schools as to whether they were going to open tomorrow or Wednesday, he fully expected many of them to remain close particularly in the south given the heavy snow that fell in Cork and Kerry on Sunday.
Asked about how schools would make up lost days, Mr O'Keeffe said that if the closure was as a result of a local decision by the board of management, it would be a matter for the board to decide where the lost days could be made up.
However with regard to days lost due the national directive, his officials would meet next week with the teacher unions and other interested parties and he was confident that with a partnership approach, agreement would be reached on how the lost days could be made up.
Chambers Ireland, which represents 13,000 businesses in the Republic, had also called on the Department of Education to review Friday's decision.
Deputy chief executive Seán Murphy said: “While there may be a case to be made for shutting those schools whose heating systems or water supplies are not working, a blanket shutdown does little to help struggling businesses and working parents trying to source additional expensive childcare at this time."
