Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Over the Easter holidays, I got out the paint brush and went painting the outside of the house. I put on the headphones and listened to the audiobook by the Minister's former colleague, Eoghan Murphy. He was a man of great ability and energy. He gave a lot of service to the country. I am sure some in the room have read the book or listened to the audiobook. He found it very frustrating that Departments do not always communicate with each other and the synergies we all want do not always exist. I will begin with some areas that do not exist in the Minister's Department. Bear with me.

School meals are provided in schools each day, yet they are not in the remit of the Department. School transport is a function of the Department of education, yet it is provided by Bus Éireann. Indeed, the Department of Transport has some remit in it. We are still too early in this Government, programme for Government and Dáil for some things to be reformed and straightened out and none of this is the Minister's fault. However, as Minister for education and a member of Cabinet, she might at some point be able to articulate some of this.

Regarding school transport, a Bus Éireann bus with the Irish setter on the side of it arrives at a school. It brings children to school. Then it leaves and returns to depot empty because it is now a Department of Transport vehicle. That does not make sense. School meals have to be hot meals because there is an element of EU funding to them. Many children say that was a novelty when it came to their school but is no longer a novelty and they would like cold school meals.

School meals should come under the Minister's Department and school transport should be solely under her Department. I know the Minister has to do her share of constituency work so she will know TDs sometimes get queries in which do not fall within the silos of a Department and we get the run-around everywhere. If a meal is served to a child in a school and taken away and disposed of in the school, children and teachers have views on that. I think it belongs in the Minister's Department. I do not know if she has the answer to that today but I would love to see the Department realigned a little bit so everything, education-wise, comes under it and it only.