MINISTER FOR DEFENCE and Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has commended schools for how they handled the hoax bomb threats this week and said that lessons need to be learned from the situation.

She said if new protocols are needed for situations like what was seen this week, then they will be put in place.

On Wednesday, hundreds of schools across Ireland received hoax bomb threats via email.

A threatening email was also sent to The Journal, RTÉ and several UK news organisations, including Sky News, Reuters, the BBC and The Guardian.

Around 400 schools across Munster received an email, which was sent from a different email address to the one used to contact media organisations. Schools across Dublin and Northern Ireland also received a threatening email.

Asked today about the situation, McEntee said it was “not a normal situation” but thankfully is not something that happens regularly.

“Schools, I think, responded extremely well,” she told reporters this afternoon at the EPC Summit in Dublin’s Convention Centre.

She added that while some schools “responded differently” everyone had student safety “front and centre”.

“The gardaí have said very clearly that if a threat like this comes in again, the first thing to do is to engage directly with the gardaí, but also to take decisions within the school as to what is appropriate for that individual school.

“But I think we need to learn lessons from the last 24 hours. I think if there is a clearer protocol that needs to be provided for schools, that we do that.

“If there is a clearer route to engage with the gardaí, that we put that in place and that we listen to the teachers and to the staff,” she said.