Just before Easter, on 27 March, heavy rain and flooding caused a landslide and the partial collapse of the Glenshesk Road between Ballycastle and Armoy, which is in my constituency. Thankfully, given that traffic was flowing along the road at the time, there was no damage or impact other than to the road. The road is closed and blocked off at the site of the landslide, and, according to DFI, that will be the case for the foreseeable future. That, obviously, causes a lot of disruption for local residents, who are trying to go about their normal business, and will continue to do so while the reconstruction takes place.

Now that the Easter school holidays are over, the disruption has been compounded by the fact that the normal school bus route has been closed off to children attending schools in Ballycastle. From Sunday, through yesterday and to this morning, my local Sinn Féin colleagues and I received a lot of correspondence from parents who are dismayed at the lack of a contingency plan from the Education Authority and Translink to ensure that children living along that road get the transport that they are entitled to to their primary or secondary school.

With the safety of children being paramount and with the road likely to be closed between now and the school summer holidays and beyond, common sense must be applied to ensure that safe transport is provided for the affected schoolchildren. I have requested an urgent meeting with the Education Authority and Translink to discuss the issue. I hope and expect that that meeting will happen soon, and I appeal to both those statutory organisations to find a speedy, common-sense, sustainable resolution that permits children and their parents to get to school.