Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill. I want to raise two issues, the first of which is the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS. Under the CRSS announced in the budget a business that is impacted by Covid-19 related restrictions, including closure, can make a claim to Revenue for a payment for each week it is affected by those restrictions. That is a welcome support given the massive impact Covid-19 is having on certain businesses across the State. While most businesses have been impacted in some way this year, certain businesses have been severely affected from day one back in March. It has not been a case of one size fits all.

Travel agents have been one of the worst impacted sectors. Given the collapse of international travel due to the pandemic, their entire business model has fallen off a cliff. Despite that, however, travel agents have had to stay open throughout the pandemic to process refunds and vouchers for customers even though they have had no income coming in. When the CRSS was first announced, travel agents were not included. That was a major blow to the sector. They are permitted now to apply for the scheme under level 5 but this is set to be removed when level 5 restrictions are downgraded. The fact of the matter is that there is no level 1, 2, 3 or 4 for travel agents. There is only level 5. The financial hardship and the impact of Covid-19 will not stop for them on 1 December. It is incredible and unacceptable that the Government will remove the support from this severely impacted sector. These are often small family businesses. I know personally of cases where the families have remortgaged the family home to stay afloat. We will need these businesses in the future when the Covid pandemic comes to an end. I ask the Minister to reconsider his decision in that regard. It is a very serious matter.

Another sector that is excluded from the CRSS is the bus, coach and chauffeur service sector. In a reply to a parliamentary question recently, the Minister stated that where a business does not ordinarily operate from a fixed business premises located in a region that is subject to restrictions, such as coach or bus operators whose business is ordinarily operated from mobile vehicles, that business will not meet the eligibility criteria. That is an incredibly unfair position to take. Many bus and coach operators who usually ferry tourists to every corner of Ireland have had no business at all this year due to Covid. There are no gigs, festivals, events or tourism. These companies often carry wealthy tourists to remote corners of Ireland and encourage spending in small craft shops and little cafés in rural villages, which supports thousands of jobs. When tourism starts to recover next year we will depend on those companies to ferry tourists around the country again. Bus, coach and chauffeur services have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. I ask the Minister to reconsider immediately his decision to exclude them from the scheme.

School bus transport is an issue I have raised consistently with various Ministers but it is still a matter that is unresolved. I welcome the additional funding for the sector but figures I have received from the Department of Education show that 97,644 tickets have been issued for school transport this year. That is far short of the 130,144 applications.

There is a shortfall of 32,500 seats in the school transport system, meaning one in four children has not got a place on a school bus this year. That is worse than in any other year. There should not be an annual struggle for places. It is not fair on families or students. School transport is vital and needs to be properly resourced. This year's shortfall has caused serious disruption for parents and working families who rely on school buses to bring their kids to and from school. Parents are left cramming their children into people carriers and following the bus to school, often with the children's siblings in the bus. It makes absolutely no sense. I ask that the various Departments and the Minister act on this immediately.

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