Minister for Education Norma Foley

This morning.

Via RTÉ News

Children in third class and up will be required to wear face masks at school from this morning, and can be refused entry if they do not.

However, the Department of Education has said schools can be flexible in application of the rule in the first couple of days.

Ms Foley said she recognised it may be “difficult” for some, but added: “Schools know their children and are best placed to identify those children whose complex needs are such that the wearing of face coverings may not be possible for them and to discuss this with parents as required.”

Foley: Schools will adopt ‘practical approach’ to mask wearing (RTÉ)

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Last night.

Meanwhile…

Um.

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41 thoughts on “New Norma

          1. SOQ

            So taking the first link which is Boots- €1 per mask. 3 children = roughly €63 per month- as opposed to about €6 for 3 rags?

            Dream on.

    1. Micko

      It’s only a recommendation and advice sure isn’t it?

      Norma is going for the big flex here – no?

      Same as when they advised pensioners to “cocoon at home” and then said it was only recommended afterwards.

      Ignore.

      1. George

        Advice is a synonym for recommendation. There was never any suggestion ever that cocooning was mandatory. There were no laws requiring over 70s to stay home and nobody was policing it. The wording used in the guidelines was “should” not “must”.

        This nonsense suggestion that the story changed afterwards is one of the dumbest things I have seen so far this pandemic.

        1. Micko

          Ummm

          Yes, that’s what I’m saying George.

          It was never mandatory by law. Just like the masks on 9 year olds isn’t.

          Doesn’t stop the Gov giving the impression it is though.

          1. George

            “Then said it was only recommended afterwards.” – they said it was recommended when they were recommending it not afterwards.

            There will no legal punishment for kids not wearing masks but they can be excluded from school. The gardai don’t get involved in kids being suspended from school.

  1. phil

    Here is what Ive been wondering

    1) If there are 24% of S Africans Vaccinated , I guess we are to assume that omicron came from the unvaccinated. those unvaccinated may have had the real covid , so does that tell us the vaccines are no good for omicron as getting covid is the best vaccine?

    2) Could the omicron variant have come from a mutation within a vaccinated person ?

    1. Kim The Cardassian

      We wont really know the true origins but based on what we know so far, the thinking is that the strain originated in a country that does very little monitoring so that rules out South Africa as the country of origin. One of the leading theories is that the strain developed in the body of someone who is immuno suppressed. (e.g. someone with an existing condition that suppresses their immune system). Being immuno suppressed means that your body takes far longer to clear a virus and they suffer with Covid as a result. This gives the virus plenty of time to evolve and the theory is that it happened over a period of months.

      1. SOQ

        That variant was found in other countries long before it was claimed it was coming out of South Africa.

        The only thing mutating is the lies.

      1. SOQ

        You cannot catch the disease known as CoVid-19, only the virus known as SARS-CoV-2. Those ‘vaccines’ were never designed to prevent infection of SARS-CoV-2 and no manufacturer ever claimed they were.

        Children rarely if ever develop serious CoVid-19.

  2. Micko

    Ah it’ll be grand. And sure – it’s only “temporary.”

    In other completely unrelated news.

    It’s only been 89 weeks since it was 2 weeks to flatten the curve.

    Yay!

    1. Boj

      “Maskflakes assemble” was better….but its good to know you’re putting thought into your dopey insults.

      Strange ‘people’ on the internet these days…

      1. Broadbag

        Good to know you’re putting effort into monitoring people’s posts, important work. Internet = serious business.

  3. NM

    Norma also said if there are children wearing glasses and there is an issue of them fogging up they should visit a GP.

    1. Frank

      our health service is ‘crippled’ but the minister for Education tells nitwits they can make an appointment for €60 for a medical cert for ‘foggy glasses’
      Holy flipping hellfire!

      1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

        it took one week for me to get an appointment to see my doctor, I had to go to Crumlin instead, the place was packed with babies who could not get an appointment either and at that age you can’t always wait,
        but yeah foggy glasses, cuckoo land dope.

    2. George

      Non-issue, putting some washing up liquid on the lenses and rinsing it off completely eliminates the fogging up problem and lasts for 2-3 days

  4. Frank

    So not only do the vaccines stop working after 3-6 months they are obviously ineffective against new mutations eg. Omicron. Hence the panic.
    But hold on!
    We apparently don’t know yet if new variant Omicron is more deadly or indeed vaccine immune… do we know if the previous mutated variants, Beta, Delta, Eta, Iota, Kappa, & Lambda are more deadly or vaccine immune?

    The common cold is older than time but somehow some genius has repackaged the threat it poses and is selling us ‘A CURE’ that kind of works but doesn’t really.

    There will be no end to this if we continue on this path. You’d think masking up kids would be the tipping point. It won’t. Every gobpoo in north Dublin had their kids in masks this morning. I really despair.

    This is pile of poo poo mcpoo

    1. George

      The only correct or sensible thing you’ve written is the last line which I assume refers to the rest of your post.

  5. ANO

    Anyone who uses the word ‘snowflake’ outside the context of talking about literal snowflakes is a Muppet.

    Not to cast aspersions on ‘VV’ but is there a clip of Kenny saying what he alleges ? Did someone at Broadsheet hear it before making this post ?

    Regardless, Pat Kenny’s a fecking gobshite.

  6. D-troll

    @Daithi K – you must be the only person to listen to pat kenny in the morning these days. id say his typical listener would be right or centre right work commuter who works in an office. for last 2 years they arent driving to work so arent listening to him. do you think white van man has newstalk on the dial.

    the danger is that you have given pat kenny a platform on broadsheet.

    if we ignore PK he will fade away from public. hopefully.

    wonder what PK thought of kids when he ran the Late Late toy show.

    1. I can't stand the rain

      Pat is right. Why exactly would a kid not want to wear a mask to protect the safety of other kids?
      I wager it’s only in the case where their parent are uneducated morons that a kid would feel like that.

  7. Broadbag

    Anyone care to take a punt on the last time we had a ‘decent’ ie. vaguely capable health minister?

    1. eamonn

      there are a selection of them (x health ministers) in cabinet, while they may be decent in the general sense, I wouldn’t go so far as to say capable in terms of their portfolio.
      Others that spring to mind J Reilly, M Harney – say no more.hope they are enjoying their “well” earned pensions.
      This is a pandemic of the incompetent ?
      Perhaps an impossible task ?
      I can’t imagine trying to navigate a society through this. I do not envy them the job, however their collective report card from this particular citizen will not be like rudolf’s nose…… (glowing)

  8. GiggidyGoo

    Donnelly proves yet again what a waste of space he is. Sarah McInerney made mincemeat of his catchphrases.

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