Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the witnesses. I have a scenario that I want to put to Mr. Kent. We all have individual cases, demands and representations. In my neck of the woods, east Galway, there is a young child who is moving on to secondary school. For all of his childhood years attending national school, he was collected at a point 2.8 km from his family home. The parents applied for school transport and were advised recently that the collection point is being discontinued. As a consequence, that child is now forced to walk or cycle 5.1 km one way or 10.2 km a day to get to school. Regrettably, the family do not have access to a car, which is a pretty prevalent situation. That is an anomaly for them. To reach school, the child will have to travel on quite a lot of unsafe, rural roads and a main regional road. What this family are being forced to do is completely unsafe and unsustainable. I am looking at this issue from an inclusion point of view and wondering how children in that scenario can be facilitated. Our offices were contacted in this regard. On 5 June, we contacted Bus Éireann but got no response to our query or request. We followed up in July but we still did not get an acknowledgment. I can understand the volume of requests and demand and how the Department is trying to square all of these things to provide transport to a very high standard, which involves dealing with and managing people and private operators. I compliment the Department on its very high standards. The case I cited may not be isolated but I plead for support on behalf of the family concerned. Why would that collection point have been discontinued? Why is a child expected to travel 5.1 km to get to school?