There was a significant development yesterday when the Tánaiste said the Government wants to regularise the pay and conditions of school secretaries and caretakers. Here's our reaction.

Also in education, a group of centrist English Tories has recommended scrapping GCSE's (broadly equivalent to our junior cert) as part of a radical post-Covid overhaul of schools.

Speaking of recommendations, NPHET declined to urge further public health restrictions yesterday, despite expressing deep concerns about the spread of the pandemic.

Make of that what you will, but most people expect the situation to worsen according to an Irish Times poll, which also found that just 20% of us think the current restrictions are too severe. And there's more on who knew what when.

I'm not sure that anyone was expecting Budget supports for remote working, but public expenditure minister Michael McGrath has ruled them out in an interview with the Indo. No mention of public service pay in that, by the way.

Elsewhere, the same minister gives a decidedly downbeat assessment of Ireland's chances of meeting its climate targets, although his Government's new climate bill got a cautious welcome from environmental groups.

Finally, EU negotiators have played down UK spin about the likelihood of a post-Brexit trade deal. This as the president of the European Council dropped into Farmleigh.

That's it for this week.

Bernard