Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make some points related to national issues and, if members will forgive me, others relating to my constituency of Kildare South. We have had a robust debate and I certainly agree with the vast majority of what my colleagues have said. It is certainly the case that these issues are impacting right across the country. Mr. Kent said he could not exercise discretion in relation to the policy and I understand that. He said all applications had to be dealt with in accordance with the rules and guidelines of the Department. I know he has to be circumspect in his answers but does he believe it would be better if Bus Éireann was in charge of the scheme in its entirety? It might be more streamlined and it might give us the opportunity to set up a system that operated better.

M. Kent also mentioned cost recovery. Does this put Bus Éireann under financial pressure to administer the scheme? It obviously has an impact. He said ten people administered the scheme and that there are times when there is a bubble. If that is the case, why not stagger applications? We could do this for some older children or when we are 100% sure which school a child will attend the following September. Instead of 27 April being a cut-off point, there should be system that can start before Easter.

There are 450 people with special educational needs on a waiting list for the provision of transport. It was said that eligibility was determined following consultation with special educational needs organisers but this seems to be a cumbersome approach. Does the Department have any plans to review eligibility or to make the process more efficient? In one case, a young man I know called Conor, from Rathangan, was in a unit within a mainstream primary school not in his own town, because none was available there. Bus Éireann provided transport to this young man for eight years and everything worked like a dream but when he had to leave the primary school there was a very hard-fought battle to get him a place. Unfortunately, there was none in a mainstream school so he has gone to another special school in the area. Three weeks later, even though Bus Éireann knew he was in a wheelchair, no transport has been provided for him. His mother has to put all other responsibilities aside and take a 50 km round trip to ensure Conor has the opportunity to attend education. It seems ridiculous that he availed of Bus Éireann for eight years but the company was not told he needed wheelchair access. I have sent several emails about this but I will send them directly to the Department to make sure it is dealt with. This sort of thing causes a lot of frustration for people.

The same issues present this year as presented last year. I accept some communications provisions were put in place. I have found the system for Deputies and Senators useful and people have come back to me about my queries in most cases. There are some cases, one of which is Conor's, on which nobody has come back but generally we have been able to resolve issues.

Parents are not getting responses and Deputy Catherine Martin outlined some of the issues there have been with phone calls. I have also heard that, when parents are contacted by email or phone, they do not get responses. These parents pay a lot of money for their children to avail of the transport scheme and a number of them have complained about it. I believe the cost is quite high, in addition to all the other extra costs involved in going to school. If they are accepted but then cannot get into the system and are left without a place, there is a problem. Deputy Troy covered the issues around safety checks.

There are issues in my local areas of Suncroft and Nurney. In Suncroft two children, who have to travel 9 km to their secondary school, had a place last year but have been told there is no place for them this year. A father of three daughters in Nurney contacted me. Two of his daughters were in the secondary school in Kildare last year and had places and a third is starting this year but they have been told there are no places for them. It is a one-car family. The dad is, thankfully, working but he needs the car to take his daughters to school. How are children expected to go to a school 9 km away without transport? It is good to encourage young people to walk and cycle to school when it is safe to do so but 9 km is quite a distance and it is on busy roads. A councillor in Kildare has spoken of a system where students have a walking bus, though they do not live too far away. She is looking further into this. It is like a cardboard cut-out of a bus but it is actually a safe way for children in urban areas to go to school. I would be interested to hear the witnesses' comments on that.

There are issues around changing bus routes and bus drivers and there is a particular issue on a route into the Gaelscoil. The bus driver had a very good relationship with everybody but he was changed to a route 20 miles away for no apparent reason. It is difficult for small children, especially junior and senior infants, to get used to a new driver and, in this instance, the new driver was not given a route map and did not arrive on the first and second days. The inspector had to come out and the old bus driver had to come back to show the route to the new driver. Things like this happen but they should not happen and there should be a dummy run a week before the school starts. Going back to school can be stressful and we should not leave children behind just because there is a new driver. It is important that all drivers have a good level of fluency and communication skills. I understand that has not always been the case. If there is a good reason for a bus route to change, we and the parents should be told. It is a problem when routes are changed for no apparent reason.

I am aware that the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Halligan, has committed to a review of transport in parts of Donegal. I wonder if it would be useful in other parts of the country as well. He spoke to the Seanad in 2017 and was very surprised that children with special needs could be on buses for long periods. Many of us know of children with complex needs who are on buses for up to two hours. The Minister said he had not been aware of that and that it was not acceptable. Has this matter been reviewed?

Those are the comments I wish to make. I appreciate that we might have an opportunity to take up individual cases with the witnesses afterwards. I accept that the witnesses will not be able to respond to every individual case but if they could come back with regard to any of them, we would be delighted to hear from them. I will hand back to the witnesses for the final round of answers and comments.