State childcare providers throughout the country, including in my own local community, will close in response to concerns around their core funding. If childcare services are not adequately funded we will not be able to provide parents with adequate access to childcare. My area is growing, with a great deal of new building in such areas as Lucan, Clondalkin, Rathcoole, Newcastle and Citywest. In that area we do not have enough childcare places to meet demand as it is. We cannot afford to have childcare providers closing; we need more to open. This year the Government is investing €1 billion in early learning and childcare. That is welcome. I note €221 million is going into the core funding. However, we need more. Will this budget provide support both for childcare providers and for parents who access childcare?

I have raised the issue of the school transport system and the ongoing review previously in this House. Today, I raise the issue of the emerging exceptional no-service interim grant payment, what appears to be yet another sticking plaster on what is rapidly becoming a broken school transport system. These children have applied, have been approved and have paid for a seat on a bus, only for their parents to be told that no bus exists. From the conversations I have had with parents, I know many of them are also children with special educational needs. I spoke to one grandmother in County Clare who is travelling to Dublin on a morning basis in order that her twin grandchildren, one of whom is a wheelchair user, can get to school. Another mother, whose 13-year-old daughter was on the school bus for the first few days but is now off the school bus, is using her annual leave to sit in the car park of the school and watch a half-empty bus that her poor daughter cannot get onto pull in. This simply is not good enough. How many families are in this situation?

On the school bus issue, it is important to state that in the 2022-23 school year, more than 149,000 children, including more than 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. The Deputy will be aware that there are challenges for a small percentage of people, which nevertheless is a significant number because many people are involved, who are having difficulties in accessing school transport this year because of a lack of drivers. The Minister, Deputy Foley, has stated she wants to put temporary supports in place while that driver recruitment issue is resolved. That is what is happening there.

They need those places.

In regard to childcare providers, as the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, said earlier, I would encourage childcare providers and their representative bodies to engage with his Department and-----

They have been trying to.

-----to reconsider whether taking action that would effectively withdraw childcare supports for three days next week should go ahead. I can state that for all three parties in government and certainly for the Minister, childcare is a big priority in the build up to this budget. Last year, there was a significant increase in funding for childcare. I suspect this budget will also prioritise childcare so I can promise the Deputy that the industry has the attention of the Government here. We want to hear what providers have to say-----

This issue has been raised for a year now.

-----and we want to respond to that as best we can in the budget. I do not believe that causing significant disruption to parents is helpful in those efforts, even though I can understand the frustration, having met a number of the childcare providers in my own town. On the question of the four-year-old boy, Logan, I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to respond to that.