Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The Minister of State spoke earlier about the need for this to be a whole-of-government approach. We do not always have flexibility. Reference was made to school transport. I will put forward a very straightforward scenario. A number of kids with disabilities choose to go on the regular school bus. The parents, families and the school community believe this is very useful from the point of view of socialisation and the skill set learning by the kids. The problem is they are marked down as concessionary and do not necessarily have a right to that place. A case was brought to my attention in north County Louth by a family that is very well known to me, and their Down's syndrome child. Due to the lottery, he and his two brothers were the only three concessionaries who did not get a place on the bus. Obviously this has been deeply traumatic for the child and the family and has impacted them greatly. It is north County Louth and is within Sheelagh. It is also about the issues in relation to school numbers that we spoke about whereby numbers get reduced because the school has two fewer students on a particular date in September but there may be an intake that also takes into account a number of kids who may have Down's syndrome or whatever else. I know it is a lot to throw at the Minister of State but those are my two questions.