Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I refer specifically to Portlaoise where, as the Secretary General will be well aware, there is one of the finest PPP school projects in the country. He will be aware that those two new school buildings are at the edge of the town, one mile or two away from the old school sites. The Department and CIE have not moved their central measuring point, even though the schools have moved up to two miles. That is utterly unfair. Now there are students who live far beyond the distance from the school to meet the requirement but they are told that the service measures them, not to the school to which it brings them but to a central measuring point in a town for schools that were build 150 years ago and that no longer exist. When the Department and the taxpayer builds new schools, is it logical that the measuring point for school transport should be related to the new schools, not the old schools that no longer exist?

I refer to the facts. I have it documented from the Minister that the central measuring point is the old point, which is now of zero relevance. What is the Secretary General's view on how the Department operates the school transport system to a central measuring point that has no relevance to the schools to which it is carrying the students? He might not be aware of the detail but these are the problems that arise with parents every day of the week.