Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thanks for that. By and large the scheme works very well. There are problems with it from time to time, and especially this time of the year. Inevitably, some parents will come to us, or schools will come to us and I want to raise this with the officials. I spent the morning of last Monday week trying to get through to the school transport section in the Department in Tullamore or trying to speak with a human being, and I failed. I want to address this with the officials. If we go back ten years ago, I would probably have been able to phone somebody on the couple of occasions every year when there were problems.

That is not possible now. All of the phones ring out. If people are working from home and they are supposed to be able to take calls, if they are not connected up by phone, they cannot work from home. I know people who are working from home, such as my sister-in-law. When the phone rings in her office, it rings twice and goes directly to her mobile phone. She can work two days a week at home. The point I am making is that there is no answering service and no way of leaving a message. I cannot get a name of anybody. I appeal to Department officials, on foot of what I am raising, to give me a name and phone number of somebody. If they cannot do it now, maybe one of them can do it after the meeting. I am raising it here because I am at my wits' end with it.

We talked about demographics. The demographic situation in the Portlaoise area, as Mr. Loftus would know, is that the population is increasing. Great work is being done providing new schools. There is still a need for new school buildings, for example at Kolbe Special School. There is a situation where there are no primary places. Children from a number of different households and backgrounds, including foreign nationals and some Traveller children, are affected. There are 21 children who need a bus to go Barnashrone National School. The principal and I were told that each one of those has been informed they have to go through a section 29 appeal. It will take much time to work its way through, and these are people whose first language is not English. I have a copy of a letter from the three primary schools in Portlaoise town that states they are full and have no spaces. Barnashrone National School is a DEIS school. It is suitable for these students. It is in the Mountmellick area. As it happens, it is only about 4 miles out the road and about 3 miles from where I live. It has the space and it is a wonderful school. If the school inspector looks at it, he or she will see it is a school that has performed very well. As a DEIS school, it has taken many children who have certain challenges and it has been very good. That needs to be looked at. If they have to go through a section 29 appeal, surely once the schools in the Portlaoise catchment area have confirmed that there are no spaces, that should be done and dusted.