Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not take ten minutes but it is nice to have some relaxed time and not be under pressure from the clock. The reason I will not take the ten minutes is that I want to focus on one aspect. Many of the other aspects have already been covered. The aspect I am keen to focus on is the school transport scheme. The existing school transport scheme is not fit for purpose. Clearly this will be exacerbated by social distancing requirements. I will give the committee an example of what has been happening with the existing school transport scheme, even without the current restrictions.

In my constituency of Cork South-West, most of the population of the Ballineen and Enniskean area attend secondary school in the nearby town of Bandon. Last year, 18 secondary school pupils were left without places on the school bus. It happened under the structures of the existing school transport scheme and was a disaster. The witnesses can imagine the concern among parents, guardians and the students themselves. Some really sad cases arose because of the situation. It led to a further issue that is not part of this committee's remit, namely, traffic chaos in the town of Bandon owing to extra vehicles on the road because school transport could not cater for students.

I note that it has been relayed that, following a principal's discussions with Bus Éireann, it is understood that more than double the current capacity would be required to adhere to social distancing. As the witnesses can see from my example, we are already running over capacity. This will be a major problem, and I would love to hear the witnesses' thoughts on the matter. Will we see increased capacity? The report mentions at least double the capacity, but clearly we need more than that. Each and every Deputy is receiving emails and calls from concerned guardians and parents about the future of school transport and whether their children will be accommodated. It was not only concessionary students who were left out last year. Even those who qualified for non-concessionary places were, too.

There is no need for me to speak further, as this is the element on which I want to focus. I thank the Chairman for his indulgence. I would like a detailed response as to whether the current capacity will be increased. There are many experienced heads in the committee room. Can they think of any potential solution that we could examine to address this issue?