Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the chance to deal with these issues because finally there are real human beings on the other side of the room at whom we can look and with whom we can raise them.

There are serious problems in the Kilkenny area that are currently ongoing and unresolved a month into the school year. In the areas of Gowran, Paulstown, Ballyhale, Thomastown and Inistioge there are about 30 children who currently have no way of getting to school. Deputy Aylward will back me up on this. I am really disappointed that the Minister is not here himself.

There is a major issue with the fact that the two Ministers with responsibility in this are are city based. They have no idea what it is like to be from a rural area. They have absolutely no sympathy with kids in rural communities trying to get to school and parents who have taken leave from work or are trying to get to their own jobs and get their kids to school. The parents have done a huge amount of research and in a lot of cases there are spaces on the buses that are passing by these children in the morning. It is not a case of needing an additional bus. I understand Ballyhale does need an additional bus but there are between ten and 12 children affected in that area. It is not a case of one or two kids, and even if it was, they would need to be accommodated. There are huge numbers of children unable to get to school. Parents cannot get answers. The Minister did a disappearing act and nobody could get him - he went down to his constituency office. I sent these details in to the Department and got onto the Minister directly and I still have not heard anything back. I sent all the details, the names, addresses and PPS numbers of all the individual children and we are still waiting on information as to what exactly is going to happen. It seems to be okay with the Department if these kids just drop out at fourth and fifth class because obviously nobody has any interest in providing transport for them.

It is so unacceptable it is hard to find the words for it. If parents were not sending their children to school through some fault of their own, we would be down on them like a tonne of bricks. However, when parents are saying they want to send their kids to school and that they want to try to go to work themselves, there is absolutely no support. They cannot even get a human on the end of the phone line or responding to emails to answer any of their questions. Are the witnesses aware of those situations? I would be shocked if they were not. What is being done for those kids and when will they have school transport? Please do not say it cannot be done because we have just heard that the Department has provided 300 additional spaces this year. Common sense has to prevail at some point. Somebody has to say it is not acceptable for at least 30 children in a county not to have access to school transport. It is just not acceptable.

The other issue I want to raise is the lady who had to go to the media with her story. She had to spread her whole life and that of her family and her son over the airwaves to get any sort of support or help. I met with her last week and she was saying that during the whole process there was no single contact person for her. She was ringing up and telling her story again and again from the start, repeating all the information to a new person each time. When the transport was sanctioned, the home support was taken away from the child yet the bus was not provided. He went the best part of a year without any schooling. Something needs to be done there. While the bus might be sanctioned, the home school support should not be taken away until the bus is provided. I want to know how come there was a miracle in that case and the very next morning they were able to provide a bus. That seems like someone dropped the ball somewhere and the bus had been available long before the lady was told about it. There is no way something happens at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday and by 9 a.m. on a Wednesday there is a bus, a bus escort and everything ready to go. It is just unbelievable. That child will have suffered from not being able to attend school. There are all the effects it has on a child's mental health. Is there any follow-up service with the Department for that child to get the additional supports he is going to need for having missed out on the social aspect of school and the knock-on effect of that?