Schools with the necessary COVID-19 mitigation measures in place were "low-risk environments" for staff and students during the last school year, the HSE has said.
A new HSE report - which brings together data from March 2020 to July 2021 - shows more than 46,000 children in Ireland contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
In total, around 4% of all children in Ireland tested positive in the last school year.
The report claims that, across the full 2020-21 academic year, just 18 schools were asked to exclude all staff and students while testing was carried out.
It says where outbreaks were recorded they were usually small-scale, with 2-3 subsequent cases usually within friendship groups.
The report says 39 cases were identified among Leaving Certificate students - 21 of whom were forced to miss exams to complete their isolation period.
14 students missed exams due to being a close contact.
The vast majority of school outbreaks involved fewer than 10 cases and the report concludes that schools should seek to reopen as a high priority.
Dr Abigail Collins - the HSE’s Public Health Schools Response Lead - told Newstalk Breakfast this new review pulls together all the relevant data so far about COVID-19 in Irish schools.
She explained: “It summarises the information that across the school year - despite the peaks and troughs, and the numbers of cases, and the different variants - the schools with the right mitigation measures in place remained low-risk environments for staff and students, which is great.”
She noted that testing positivity rates were “very low” in schools compared to other settings - something she suggested is “great news” as the new academic year approaches.
She said: “It really was symptomatic people where we tended to find more close contacts which were positive.
“When adults have symptoms, they might spread more to other adult colleagues or when they’re working closely with children.”
However, the data shows children were much less likely to spread the virus to others - although the virus is more likely to spread in home settings.
Dr Collins said outbreaks did of course occur in school settings, but around half of them were on a small scale.
She said: “By and large the outbreaks we saw were at the level of 2-4 linked cases. They were small, and tended to be among friendship groups.
“We did see larger ones, but... they [often] had many other complicated other issues within the community as well.”
She suggested some of the outbreaks officially recorded as being linked to schools may have been the result of the likes of transport or playdates rather than the school itself.
Dr Collins says nothing they’ve seen during the last school year or even in childcare settings this summer suggests schools shouldn’t reopen as planned in the coming days.
Yesterday, the HSE's testing and tracing lead said they're expecting a "very busy" September once schools reopen.
They're expecting a particular increase in demand for COVID-19 testing from the second week of September, 7-10 days after students return to classrooms.
