Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I appreciate the Minister of State standing in today, I am very disappointed with what the statement he has been handed delivers, because it has not addressed the key issue. I have established the key issue is, without doubt, that the school ethos of Educate Together is not recognised by the Department or Bus Éireann when it comes to providing school transport places. That is the fundamental point I came here to deliver this morning and in fairness to the Minister of State, the people who handed him that statement decided not to address that issue at all. I ask the Minister of State to address that. I have great respect for him, I worked with him here in the Seanad before he became a Minister of State. There is something fundamentally wrong with the current status. School transport should recognise the distinctive ethos of and include children who go to Educate Together schools. That is clearly not the case at the moment. To be clear, the transport review is welcome but will be of no comfort to the current children. It will be years before we get those school transport places. There is a fundamental issue of fairness and equality here. We recognise the ethos of Educate Together as a distinct ethos yet neither the Department the Minister of State is representing here today nor Bus Éireann do and that is not good enough.