Ms Miriam Flynn:

I thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to address the matter. Senator Maria Byrne referred to the bus crash in Caherconlish. I attended the scene on the day of the accident and we are very grateful that no one was seriously injured. In the aftermath of the incident, the Department of Education and Skills, Bus Éireann staff on the ground and the principal of the school tried to provide whatever support and services were needed by the children.

With regard to concessionary pupils who have not been facilitated this year, a significant number of such pupils have been facilitated in travelling to school. There is a large number of concessionary pupils overall. It came down to the demand for places being greater than the number of places available. As I stated, that is the issue at several of the locations throughout the country mentioned by Deputies and Senators. From the perspective of Bus Éireann, our obligation is to ensure we apply the rules of the scheme uniformly across the country. That is the issue. We made as many concessionary places as possible available. Our staff on the ground try to make arrangements such that if one service is not available, they try to offer another or accommodate as many children as they can. That is always the case.

On the hoarding of seats, safety is the number one priority in our school transport and road passenger operations. We must ensure we only issue the number of seats corresponding to the capacity of a vehicle on any route. A parent may decide that his or her child will only use the bus two days per week or in the morning but not in the evening. However, from a safety and management perspective, we must ensure the capacity of the bus reflects the number of tickets issued. Although I accept that parents may note five or six empty seats on a bus in the morning and the evening over a period of time, in managing the overall system and from a safety perspective we must ensure the number of tickets corresponds with the capacity of the bus.

Several members referred to the timeframe and volume of work involved in trying to process applications. That issue was addressed by Mr. Kent and Mr. Dolan. We provide school transport for 115,000 children. The closing date for the receipt of applications and payment is 27 July. There is a huge volume of work involved in getting pupils scheduled and services up and running by the time the new school year commences on 28 August. The fact that our staff are trying to respond to as many queries as possible and answering emails on Saturdays and Sundays when they get some time to try to clear the backlog is indicative of the dedication of our team who are trying to provide these services. In an effort to improve on overall communication from last year, we provided mobile numbers for our school transport managers and my direct contact details for all Deputies and Senators. That was intended to open communication channels such that queries received by Oireachtas Members could be dealt with. In general, it has worked well. We have within a short period received more than 10,000 emails related to locations throughout the country. We have 11 area offices that administer the school transport service. It is a short timeframe and a sizeable and complex scheme.

Mr. Kent and Mr. Dolan referred to the special educational needs scheme. We would love to say all of the approximately 2,900 applicants this year have transport. More than 900 of the applications were received since 1 July, which highlights the fact that we continually accept applications. We recognise the specialised nature of the scheme and do whatever we can to try to facilitate children on a 12 month basis in conjunction with the Department. There is a time period involved. We try to work through it as best we can, but there is a time lag involved related to the procurement of services and processes we are obliged to go through under EU legislation. The processing of so many applications puts us under pressure, but we will continue to review the position with the Department ahead of next year to see if we can alleviate the concerns of parents.