Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses to the meeting. This issue must be viewed from the perspective of the Department in terms of how the scheme is drawn up and administered and also from the perspective of Bus Éireann which is responsible for actually transporting children to school. I will start with the Department. In my view, the scheme as it is currently designed is simply not working. That is not a criticism of Mr. Dolan and indeed, it is unfortunate that the Minister is not here today. The main problems seem to have arisen after 2011. The changes that were introduced at that time seem to have caused a lot of the problems that we are discussing today and which we also discussed last year and in 2016. A review was promised two years ago. What is the status of that review? Why has its implementation been delayed?

I would go as far as to say that the design of the school transport scheme is anti-rural Ireland. From my experience of dealing with this issue in recent years, it is anti rural Ireland. There does not seem to be an understanding of what living in rural Ireland is all about.

I am dealing with a small school, Scoil Mhuire, Latton, County Monaghan, which is the only school in the parish. There is one GAA club and one school and life is centred on the parish. In some cases, even though they are all going to the one school in the parish, because of the current school transport rules, some pupils are not eligible because there might be a school in a neighbouring parish with which they have no association but which is closer to where they live. That does not make sense. As a starting point, any child from a rural parish should be accommodated in the school in the parish. It is unfortunate that the witnesses are in the firing line for decisions that were not taken by them.

I look forward to the witnesses' response on the status of the review. We need to start again because the scheme is clearly not working. We could have been here this time last year having the same conversation on school transport because the problems are the same but are now in different parishes.

I have a number of points on the implementation of the school transport scheme. From my experience of dealing with the staff on this issue, they seem to be completely overwhelmed by the process. I know there is a very tight timeframe. The staff have my sympathy because they seem to be stressed out ,as my colleague, Deputy Thomas Byrne, outlined earlier. Emails are sent out late on Saturday night or on Sunday. Deputy Catherine Martin referred to ringing Bus Éireann and getting no response. It reminds me of a girlfriend I used to have many years ago, whom I used to keep ringing and leaving messages, but she never returned my call.