Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a rare occasion. I would like to comment on Senator Garvey's contribution. I was there this morning. The response read out by the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, was a disgrace. It was a very appropriate question. As that question has been asked on school transportation and given the way the rules of the Seanad work, it will be six months before we can go back into that circle. We got a bluff of an answer. We have kids who want to get a school bus and we have a Minister of State who did not answer the question. We are going to have to find another way to deal with this because what happened here, when you look at the blacks, was frightening. The Department did not look at the question, did not deal with it and now it has blanked off the situation for the next six months. I am not putting the Cathaoirleach on the spot but it is his responsibility to ensure that we get fair play. We were wronged this morning. Schoolchildren all over Ireland were wronged. I had parents watching the response. The phones lit up like Christmas because of what happened here. We need to have a fair process in place so we can get a decent response to questions.

What happened here was just unbelievable. I have been here since 2016 and have never heard a response like it. Senator Garvey can write in but the Cathaoirleach has a responsibility to protect us from what happened here. I cannot happen again. The school transport issue has not gone away. There are kids in west Cork today who do not have a school bus and they have no ability to get tickets at the moment because we cannot get a response.