The Department of Education and Skills has clarified that special needs assistants (SNAs) who are reallocated on a temporary basis during the Covid-19 emergency will not be reassigned into nursing or front line care roles, as was suggested in some media reports yesterday.

The process of reassigning higher education and ETB (education and training board) staff got underway this week after the department asked employers in the sector to identify workers who can be reassigned to critical work areas on a temporary basis.

Staff at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) have started work as volunteers at a newly-established contact tracing centre at their Galway campus.

School secretaries and caretakers employed directly by their school boards of management are not subject to the Government’s programme of temporary reassignment of public service staff during the Covid-19 crisis.

Fórsa has supported calls by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) for the Government to implement stronger measures to avoid an economic depression as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has called on justice minister Charlie Flanagan to put urgent measures in place to protect people living in direct provision centres during the Covid-19 crisis.