Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

My local school is an example. Many of the school buses are actually Bus Éireann fleet contracted to the Department of education in the mornings. A beautiful Bus Éireann bus comes down through the village full of children and does a drop-off at 9 a.m. The school bus digital logo is then taken off and it returns from Clare to its depot in Limerick city. It is a Bus Éireann public bus contracted for the outward journey to the school. It turns away from the school gate empty, in the heart of the village, and goes back into the heart of Limerick city. It is the most desirable of all routes, from the village to the city centre, but it leaves empty. I listened to the audiobook of former Minister Eoghan Murphy while I was painting the house a few months ago. He spoke about loads of things, but one that I remember is how he said that he had wonderful ideas, and his colleagues had wonderful ideas, but that Departments operate in silos. If the Minister of State could even say to his colleagues in the Department of transport that if it is a Bus Éireann fleet vehicle, it should not go back out that road again empty if it is in a rural village. As a rural TD, the Minister of State will get the point.