Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I do not doubt the Minister of State's sincerity. I believe he is sincere about trying to resolve this, but with all due respect, his response did not reflect the experience of people on the ground. Why else would these mammies and daddies be in the Gallery tonight? Céad míle fáilte to them for keeping up the good fight.

It is like déja vu. I stood here in February with the Minister of State and explained how my constituents in Dublin South-Central who are parents fight every day for special places in schools, a fundamental right promised in our Constitution. Wonderful grassroots groups such as Families Unite for Services and Support, FUSS, Equality in Education and D12 Autism work tirelessly for families. The lack of school places and transport arrangements should not come as a surprise. Parents have to beg for places and now some are burdened by the added obstacle of no transport. They may finally be given a place at a school far from their home - we will take the Minister of State to task on those numbers - but now a lot of them cannot get their children to the school doors because of a lack of transport.

Elaine O'Reilly is a warrior of a mammy who lives in the Liberties in Dublin 8. Like many others, she fought for years for her son, Dawson. She found out in June that he had a place - yippee - in Dublin 2. Elaine does not drive so Dawson was granted a transport ticket by Bus Éireann. Bus Éireann needs to step up to the plate. There is a recorded message with no information. She ended up hailing a taxi in the rain to bring him to school. The cost is €60 per day. Repeated requests for an interim grant from the Minister of State's Department went unanswered until today when transport suddenly materialised at 4.30 p.m. Others remain, unfortunately, distressed and in limbo. Why are grants not available when the school year begins? A cost of €300 per week on taxis to school is not affordable.

It would be remiss to say that the Minister of State and his predecessors took their eyes off the ball because the eyes of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were not on the ball for the past few years. The belated attention, the lastminute.com solutions are just not working. They have failed. The Minister of State must try harder. He must do better.

See this speech in context