Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise an issue. I thank the witnesses for attending. I have many dealings with the staff in Sligo and they are very co-operative and good, particularly the bus inspector who has rung me at 8 o'clock at night or on a Saturday or Sunday. I wish to acknowledge that fact.

I do not know whether the witnesses are familiar with the N17 road, especially between Tobercurry and Ballynacarrow. No doubt Mr. Dolan has travelled it. The road is a single-lane national primary road. The yellow line along the road is tight up against the grass margin. Seven children are collected at the Aurivo store and the bus must go 1.5 km past the store in order to turn and come back to collect the children. The children in question live on the N17 road between the Aurivo store and the Woodside Inn where there is a very safe place for the bus to turn and to safely collect the children and bring them to school. The problem is that the Woodside Inn is located 500 m inside another school catchment area. Children's lives are more important than catchment areas. The road is a death trap.

It is not safe for an adult to walk on, never mind for seven children. It may not be seven every day, but certainly it is four or five. They are walking on the grass verge of this national primary road, which is a single carriageway with the yellow line up against the grass margin. They are walking on the grass along the ditch. I note that there was a fatality on that road a number of years ago when a school child died. For the sake of an extra 2 km each way and the safety of the children, the bus should go the distance. It has to go 500 m into another school area to turn and because of that, it is reluctant to go that far. This should be looked at seriously and the children should be picked up on the route. It is a place the bus could turn more safely in fact and it would stay on the main road all the time. I ask Bus Éireann to look at that situation and revert to me.