Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will put two points to the Minister of State in relation to the school transport section. I, for one, as a public representative have encountered some difficulties over the past number of months in relation to school transport and people opting for one aspect of school transport, such as the taxi, then seeing it does not work out for their circumstances, changing to the grant-based model and having huge difficulty in engaging with the Department on it.

I and many public representatives have been dealing with the Department on a long-running issue. It is where a student with complex and special needs opts for a school thinking it the most appropriate for their needs at the beginning of their school journey. The student finds out that school is not appropriate for him or her and switches to another school after much consultation, then find they are doing well in that school and it is the best environment for them. There is some issue in the Department's regulations stating that, because it was not named at the time of their first application, they cannot be granted funding or support for transport to the second school, even though it has been universally deemed by psychologists and everybody else as the appropriate setting for the student. There needs to be flexibility on that. I cannot understand why it should be the terms from six or seven years ago that determine whether the family can avail of school transport. In many instances, one or other of the parents would have given up their job to become the full-time carer.

There is a major issue with no places being available for pupils entering second level education and with children of 14 years of age whose primary schooling might have been delayed because of illness and other issues. There needs to be some flexibility in this regard also. My suggestion for the Minister of State is that, rather than having hard and fast rules on difficult and challenging cases of people with complex medial and educational needs, there should be a lot of flexibility in the Department. I can follow up with the Minister of State on the specific cases because I do not want to go into them in a public forum. There needs to be a lot more flexibility. Many public representatives and I have tried with might and main to resolve issues faced by parents and children but to no avail because of the strict interpretation of rules within the Department.