Does Deputy Cathal Crowe wish to come in on this matter?

No, I want to make a point of order. Eight Sinn Féin Deputies have exceeded the time agreed to be shared. There are Members from the Government backbenches who would also like to talk.

That is not a point of order. I am going through a list. I am now moving on to Deputy Cahill.

They are rattled opposite.

We agreed basic matters such as a reduced number of Deputies in the House, we would wear masks and so forth.

I call Deputy Cahill.

I also want to raise the issue of school transport, which Deputy Mattie McGrath referred to earlier, and a family affected by it. Michael O'Brien has a daughter who is 12 years of age and who is recovering from leukaemia. The school bus stops outside her door but she is refused a seat on the bus. We have 14 other students in that area who have also been refused school transport. There are numerous examples in County Tipperary where Bus Éireann has refused to provide transport for children for school.

The single parent in question, Michael O'Brien, has to choose between going to work or taking his daughter to school. She has already missed eight school days this year. I have numerous examples from Moneygall or Kilcommon where Bus Éireann, although allocated an extra €11.3 million, is not providing the services needed in rural areas. Will the Minister urge Bus Éireann to put on extra school buses to get our pupils to schools?

I was disappointed by the Minister's earlier response on school transport. Essentially, he said there was nothing to see here and that everything is working as planned.

In County Monaghan, I am dealing with more than a dozen families with school transport problems. In some instances, one child from a family is permitted on a bus while another child is not. I am dealing with families with children with special needs for whom no provision has been made for their school transportation this year, as was the case in previous years.

I have been dealing with officials in Bus Éireann who have told me that they are absolutely exacerbated by the Government's failure to release the resources necessary to ensure those children who need to get to school are permitted to do so. The Government needs to act on this issue now.

No one here is saying that everything in school transport is working perfectly. It clearly is not. The case of the child recovering from an illness is difficult. If the Deputy provides me with the details, we can look at the specific case.

We were not able to adjust the actual system in the timeline for the return to school and the public health side of it. It was working because there had not been a spike or an increase in infections due to the return to schools. The first real concern was keeping our schoolchildren healthy. The bus drivers, the bus companies, Bus Éireann and the schools managed to do that part of our operation in a way that has not seen a spike. I commend them on that work.

There are kids who cannot get to school, however.

It is not satisfactory. There is a whole range of circumstances in different parts of the country. A significant amount of money will be made available to provide additional bus services and to meet the public health obligations.

I will be talking to Deputy Foley to see if it changes the circumstances if, as the Deputy says, one child from a family is getting the bus and the other is not able to do so. We need to address and show flexibility to the companies to make sure those sort of operations are not tolerated.