Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is national bike week and I thank the Minister for the initiatives that are already in place, including the bike-to-work scheme. I salute Cahir gardaí and in particular Sergeant Ray Moloney for an initiative he is going to have in Cahir day care centre next Sunday to encourage na daoine óige, na daoine aosta and their families to understand the proper use of bikes and interaction with other vehicles and road users.

The Minister knows Caoimhe Kavanagh of the famed bus and coach company based in Urlingford and Tipperary. That company needs supports and practical talks. I encourage the Minister to meet her.

Other sectors have been left behind, including self-employed taxi drivers, thousands of whom we saw protesting on the streets. There are also limousine drivers who are specialists. Foreign dignitaries often travel in limousines when they swing into the back of Leinster House. They are pristine vehicles, driven by exemplary drivers who are courteous to visitors and introduce them to Ireland. Those people also need help because they get none and the taxi association does not represent them. They are exempt from VAT but that is worth nothing to them because they get nothing else. They want VRT breaks and other supports. I am asking the Minister to meet representatives of those drivers, the National Transport Authority and some of us Deputies. They are front-line workers who sell our country, meet our people and always look after them.

Ring a Link was mentioned earlier. It is a wonderful set-up and I salute the manager, Jackie Melia. It was set up in south Tipperary, Kilkenny and Carlow and has proven it has the ability to do what it does. I must declare that I am a board member. Ring a Link has brought thousands of people on journeys.

While school transport may not be the Minister's area of responsibility, I must bring the following point to his attention. Some 50 students have contacted my office about the lack of school transport. One 11-year-old schoolchild is going from Clogheen, under the famed Vee, to school in Mitchelstown every day. He gets a Bus Éireann bus from Clogheen at 7.50 a.m. to be brought to school in Mitchelstown. He is sharing a bus with other passengers and there are implications for contact tracing if anything happens. The real problem for the parents is with the transport option to get home in the evening. These students finish school at 3.40 p.m. and the bus does not come until 5.40 p.m. It is a stupid situation when coach and minibus operators have their vehicles parked up and the Government does not give them a bob. Those buses are going rusty and many of those operators are self-employed.

Some parents clock up distances of 21 km twice a day to bring students back and forth. The Minister is the leader of the Green Party and wants to cut down on emissions and everything else. He has to look at this in a holistic way with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, and others in the Cabinet. I ask the Minister to look at those issues.

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