Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

We are quite concerned about the special school transport scheme. We have already explained why it is imperative logistically to get children to school, considering the geographic spread of special schools in particular, the areas they cover and the extensive travelling times certain children have to undergo. In 2019 the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform raised a red flag over ballooning expenditure on the special school transport scheme. We are very fearful that, under the guise of Covid-19 and restrictions to the service, efforts will be made to curtail the funding for the special school transport scheme on the grounds that more parents are opting to bring the pupils in themselves or more grants can be provided to parents. Those grants would be accepted under duress.

Under normal circumstances the NCSE and the Department would be provided with the final number of new enrolments for special schools and classes and a public tendering process would be run over the summer for those special transport routes. If parents are lucky enough, towards the end of August, just before school starts, they might get a phone call to tell them who is going to turn up on Monday morning to pick up their child for special school. They are not always guaranteed to know who that is going to be, which is another issue. We have no indication of whether there are delays with the public tendering process which should be happening over the summer, or whether social distancing guidelines will have to be taken into account in the transport routes. If there are 17 children on a bus that is shared across two different special schools, which often happens, two school groupings and children who might be in different classes will be mixing. If we are going to minimise the spread of Covid should it enter into a school setting, the transport arrangements are essential. I reiterate concerns that this might be used as a means to reduce the funding for a particular budget that has already rung alarm bells for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.