Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

My motion relates to funding that was approved for the autism unit in Finn Valley College, Stranorlar, County Donegal, which has more than 300 students. Funding was approved for the old building of the former school before the new building was built. That building has recently been completed and the students moved in in September. The previous Minister approved funding for an autism unit within the former school. The board of management and County Donegal VEC assumed that funding would be transferred to the new school to provide the much-needed autistic services for the students who depend on such services. I do not understand why the funding of €150,000 has been withdrawn given that there is no autism unit in the new building. I ask the Minister of State to outline whether the funding can be re-instated. I hope he will have good news that the funding originally approved and then withdrawn can now be re-instated or at least that the Department might enter into consultations with the school's board of management to find a way of having the funding re-allocated to the school.

I have a separate issue relating to the same school, Finn Valley College. The Minister of State recently answered a parliamentary question on an application from County Donegal VEC for approximately €10,000 for the shuttle bus service to the school. The new school was built 600 m from the old building and yet the school transport drop-off and pick-up point was factored in as being at the old school rather than the new school. The pupils are now walking to and from the new school. During the first week seven or eight students walked to the school in the rain but had to go home because their clothes were so wet. Although the Minister of State has given a reply to a parliamentary question submitted by a colleague of mine in the past 24 hours saying no funding would be available even though the VEC made an appeal, it is a once-off grant of €10,000 and I appeal to him to revisit the decision.