The Department of Education has today, Thursday 29 October, written to all schools to advise them of changes to the approved list of products on the Education Sector PPE procurement agreement, and the steps they can take to procure new stock if they need to. Suppliers on the agreement have committed to swift processing of orders and delivery to support schools. 
 
Following the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine instruction to cease the use of all ViraPro products on Friday 23 October, the Department of Education immediately commenced a review of biocidal products included in the Education Sector PPE procurement agreement.  
 
The review has been undertaken in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, which is the regulator in Ireland for biocidal products.
 
The Department is taking 43 biocidal and 9 other products off the approved list for schools because it has not been possible to satisfactorily confirm their registration status as part of the review. These products will not be included in our approved list for schools until their registration status has been confirmed. The Department has no evidence that these products are unsafe.
 
As part of the procurement process for the Education Sector PPE Procurement Agreement in June and July, suppliers were required to confirm that their products were compliant with the regulations and provide documentation, were to provide information on their current live product range rather than future releases and to give examples of contracts in the last two years which included supply to the Irish public sector. 
 
As part of the review process in recent days, all of the biocidal products included in the PPE agreement have been checked – both existing and new items. This involved reviewing 172 items from 14 suppliers.
 
The Department of Education has decided to add a new supplier that replied to the procurement notice in June and has now confirmed they have the required biocidal registrations, and 23 new products to the agreement.   
 
The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and the Education Procurement Service are engaging directly with the suppliers concerned regarding the status of these products and it may be possible to reinstate these products to the agreement at a later date.
 
Where schools have stocks of the products listed as “removed” on the lists here, whether purchased through the agreement or purchased locally, they should not use them and they should store them securely until collected by the supplier.
 
Schools impacted by the removal of these products will be provided with funding to source new supplies. 
 
The Department of Education has issued to schools an updated list of all the products on the agreement, effective today, with all relevant associated pricing.  
 
The suppliers and products on the agreement will be monitored on an ongoing basis and any further changes to the list will be notified to schools.   
 
The Education Procurement Service has engaged with suppliers on the agreement in the last few days and there is sufficient stocks available for schools to order.  
 
Schools seeking new product to replace stock should contact any of the suppliers on the agreement directly to process orders. The Department is working with suppliers to ensure that stock is provided to schools in time for reopening on Monday 2 November where needed. Suppliers are ready to prioritise school orders they receive. 
 
Any school that is impacted by this will be provided with funding for an Aide for two days to assist with dealing with these issues.
 
Schools that have any difficulty sourcing an alternative supply or are concerned about a funding shortfall to cover this additional cost can contact the Department’s Covid-19 helpline or email address and Department staff will work to support schools. 
 
The Schools Covid-19 helpline on 057 9324461 will be open until 8.30pm on Thursday and from 8am on Friday until 8pm and from 10am to 5pm Saturday and Sunday. The email address is covid19_alert@education.gov.ie . Emails will be monitored and replied to over the weekend also.

The full list of products recalled can be seen
here
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