I want to raise the issue of school transport in County Carlow. Coláiste Eoin in Hacketstown is a growing school with a large rural catchment area. It will have 280 students in the next school year. During the Covid pandemic, the principal managed to get an extra bus service for the school, which picked up students living in rural areas. He has been told that the service will be discontinued in the new school year. That is unacceptable. The service was in place and the school needs it. I ask that the service be continued.

I have also recently been contacted by parents who want to renew school transport tickets for their children with Bus Éireann. If the child has a valid medical card, parents can renew the ticket online. However, when parents have visited the website to do this, they have received error messages. One lady contacted Bus Éireann in respect of the matter and was told that because of the cyberattack on the HSE, the company is asking parents to pay the price of the ticket for the first school term on the basis that they will receive a refund later. The cost for the ticket for the first school term is €175. That particular lady does not have €175. This cannot be allowed to happen. We must sort it out to enable people to visit the Bus Éireann website to apply for tickets with their child's medical card. I ask that the matter be looked into urgently.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It is that time of year again when we are starting to run into issues in respect of school transport. I know that such issues can cause a great deal of distress for many families. The best thing I can do is to let the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, know that the Deputy raised the issue and ask her to reply directly to the Deputy by correspondence.