Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is essentially saying that all the people who have been contacting Deputies across the House are liars. On Thursday last, her suggestion was that the schools would operate this week for leaving certificate students and children with special educational needs. That did not happen precisely because the engagement had not taken place beforehand with all those leaving certificate students who have been contacting us this week to say they have had no engagement from the Minister or her Department, all the teachers who were absolutely flabbergasted by the Minister's position only a week ago and all those parents who are still wondering what exactly will happen.

The Minister asked whether I understood the reality of school transport. I will tell her the reality of one family in my constituency. The father passed away in the most tragic circumstances a couple of years ago and the mother has been doing everything in her power to hold her family together under the most difficult circumstances. As a result of financial constraints and all the other issues in that house, it was 10 August when the mother paid her school transport fees. The school bus passes her front door every single morning and she has to get into a car with two of her children and follow it. That is the lived reality. I understand that when the schools were reopening in September, lots of issues needed to be dealt with. The Minister had September, October, November and December to sort out issues for these families and she has not engaged at all. The problem is that those families are sitting at home now and are unaware whether or not the children will have seats on their school bus. It is crucially important they do.

In my county almost half the households do not have access to broadband. The Minister has not answered, her Department has not answered and the Government has not answered how in the hell these families are supposed to facilitate remote learning for their children. It is simply not good enough.

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