John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to follow on from the points made by Senator Gallagher. The Good Friday committee, of which I am a member, went on a trip to Belfast approximately a year ago. We met with the families of the disappeared. We met with Oliver McVeigh, who is Columba McVeigh's brother. It is utterly heartbreaking to say the least. I am praying for the McVeigh family and I hope that finally after so many years that they can take their loved one home, give him a Christian burial, and look after him so that he is not left out there in the dirt, alone.

Today, we are nine days on from the budget. The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, made a really good announcement in the budget press conference in relation to school transport, which is an issue that many in this House have raised. I am not asking for the Minister to come back into the House and I am not asking for another debate on it, because to be fair to the Minister, she has taken Commencement matters and she has taken a Private Members' motion in this House. This has been dealt with in quite a lot of detail. The result that we wanted was the result that came out of it, which is that additional funding has been set aside. The Department is looking to try to sort out those capacity issues. What I would like is to get some real detail from the Department, and that is why I am speaking today about it. What is happening now? We are now nine days on from the budget. We have gotten one email from the Department to say it is looking at it and it is trying address capacity issues.

How many children in this country are still without a bus ticket? How many people's issues have now been resolved? What is the plan? We have been asking for the last five or six weeks and we have been working hard to try to make sure we have a plan in place. The Minister has now put that money aside. The money has been put aside and the Minister wants to fix the issue, but what is the plan as to how it will be fixed? That is what I want to know and that is why I have raised it today in the Seanad.

I would appreciate it if we could use this House and the Leader's office to try to engage with the Minister to find out what the plan is and what the timeline is for it. These families have are now six or seven weeks into not having a bus. They got really good news last week with the budget. We are really happy with that and I commend the Minister on that, but I want to know what the timeframe is and when it will be resolved.