Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment. I have not had an opportunity to congratulate her. I commend the work she and her Department are doing.

I wish to highlight that I wrote to her a couple of weeks ago with respect to concessionary tickets for Blackwater Community School in Lismore, County Waterford. The Department gave a commitment to come back to me and I would appreciate if that could happen. A number of children there are essentially stranded and parents are in very difficult positions. I am sure there is a way to accommodate students in the school bus system.

The Department of Education and Skills approved funding of €11.3 million to support hygiene, PPE and sanitisation for school transport. However, it has transpired that just 50% of this fund, approximately €5.5 million, has gone to private operators despite the fact that they supply 90% of school transport over the 39 weeks of the school year. Private bus operators are being offered between €4.50 and €8.50 each day to provide sanitising equipment to clean their buses, any PPE and whatever else is required. Some buses will do multiple runs. This is wholly inadequate and is something the Department needs to revisit.

I know the Minister will say that school transport is operated by Bus Éireann, which is under a tender system, but that is certainly not good enough. We are asking bus drivers to behave like serfs. They have to clean buses on an hourly basis for €4.50. Private bus operators received a number of quotes, the cheapest of which was €30 for one bus clean. I ask the Minister to examine this situation. It is not sustainable and is taking from the services operated by private operators. The situation is not equitable and I ask the Minister to do something about it.

I note the Minister's comments that the school transport scheme operates through Bus Éireann and the Department feels it has no role to play. I disagree. The Department must take into account private bus operators who are dealing with family groups. If NPHET says that the 50% capacity has to be implemented how will that be borne by hard-pressed families? It is not fair that the Department has passed the buck on this issue.

In addition, a large number of scheduled bus operators in the private sector are still waiting for contracts to be issued by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. This is despite the fact that Bus Éireann is picking up a lot of that work and probably doing it for three times the cost. Again, the issue involves crossover with other Departments. I ask the Minister to consider these matters.

The other issue I raised earlier today - I think the Minister heard what I had to say - relates to psychological services for children with autism and those on the autism spectrum. I highlight again that there are very hard-pressed parents who are paying for private consultations in order to have their children evaluated and then the Department or the HSE do not take those tests as being valid unless they have been done through the schools. This is despite the fact that a large secondary school - it is usually a secondary school - might be allowed only two NEPS consultations per year. This is something the Minister really has to look at. Perhaps she would like to comment on it because I have met a number of hard-pressed families in this situation. They are at their wit's end. They are trying to do the best for their kids and ultimately they feel they are being stonewalled by the system while their children regress further. I ask the Minister to comment on that matter.