Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and I am very grateful for being allowed to raise these issues. The Department has gone back on the promise it made, when it closed an outlying school, that the children would be transported to the central school in that parish. That is not happening in Scartaglen where the people were promised that they would be taken to the school in Cordal parish. They now have to travel themselves. It is very important for a person in a parish to retain their identity. The Department will provide them with a service to Scartaglen school but that is not their parish. It went back on the promise it made in that regard, and it has happened in every parish and county in Ireland. That is very unfair because there are so many services being taken from parishes, including post offices, Garda stations and so on. These people will have to pay someone or take their children to school themselves. That is what happening. The Department went back on its promise. I am not blaming the witnesses personally but the Department.