Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Gabh mo leithscéal. The Minister indicated there will be some school transport changes that particularly relate to the area of 4.5 km. There are 32 young children attending the Cross and Passion College in Kilcullen. They who live in the Ballysax-Curragh area. They have been told they will not get bus transport to that school in September. This is simply unacceptable. They are being told they should attend the new school on the Curragh but as we know that new school is being developed in Kildare town, which will be further away than the Cross and Passion College in Kilcullen. We need Bus Éireann, through the Minister, to agree a pathway for these people to allow for more than the 4.5 km limit and for their second choice school, which in this case is the Cross and Passion College in Kilcullen. I ask that the Minister come to the House because that is not the only case I have on school transport. She needs to sit down and we need to see a new protocol for school transport to allow those children, and many more, to get the public transport they badly need.