Local students of the University of Limerick are being warned that organising house parties could result in a fine or expulsion.
Colleges and institutes of technology have been told to have as few students on campus as possible for the next few weeks.
But there are reports some UL students are still planning large scale parties when the new semester starts in the coming days.
Associate Vice President Patrick Ryan says they’ll be trying to make sure public health guidelines are followed:
“We have senior staff who will be out and about from Sunday evening right through the next three weeks, with the students’ unions, with An Garda Síochána, and any opportunity that we have to promote public health safety and public health guidelines we’ll be taking them.
“In the very small cases, if there are problems, if there are issues or complaints that come into us, we’ve got mechanisms in place that we’ll be able to address and review those that we’ll be able to address and review those as soon as possible.”
Mr Ryan says vigilance will be key to driving home the message:
“Anywhere that we get an opportunity that we can say to a student, ‘it looks like you’re building up a bit of a party in there – there’s a few people around – will you be really careful in terms of your health? So that when you return home at the weekend, that the people that you meet when you return home stay as healthy as they can be because of actions you’ve taken during the week.”
Meanwhile, Limerick Institute of Technology, which has two campuses in Tipperary, has also released a statement.
They say they have already put a system in place for limiting any face-to-face teaching for students and the majority of their courses are being delivered online now.
