Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. There are two matters I wish to raise. The first relates to the query Deputy Currie raised. It is about how the transport system serves busy suburban areas. I am not blaming the witnesses for that, but it really is not meeting people's needs. I will provide a couple of examples. The first is the 11 families in Tyrrelstown who could not get places in the local school, which is a very strict Catholic school located in a multidiverse area. In any event, they could not get places regardless. Most of them had to go to Hansfield Educate Together in Ongar, which as has been stated, is 9 km away. The families have contacted all the public representatives in the area. We have all traded emails with the witnesses. Those involved do not conform with the criteria of ethos or language and could not get into the local school. They should be entitled to school transport. Most of them do not have cars. Not everybody in Dublin has a car. They have been trying to carpool and juggle their work commitments. Will the witnesses look into this matter? It is not their fault that they have sent their children to a school in which they could get places for them. I do not know whether they tried every school en route, but I assume they did. Ms Heneghan mentioned that they can go to the Department of Education. Nowhere in the correspondence they received was that pointed out. It just says that they did not meet the criteria; it does not say that they had the option of going to the Department of Education. If this had been pointed out, I would have done that on their behalf. I did not know that this was the position. Perhaps the witnesses will agree to contact our offices after this meeting in order that we might try to get this matter resolved? What is happening is causing the people involved much stress. It is unfair that they happen to live in an area where there are not enough schools.

The other issue I wish to raise is very interesting. We have a problem whereby there are many Catholic schools at one end of the constituency and where there are many people who do not want their children to be forced to go to such schools. Yesterday, I was contacted by a parent whose child has been refused school transport.

She lives in Ashtown, in the Dublin 15 area. Her child is non-binary. I see everyone wearing all the Pride lanyards. The local school in the area is a girls' secondary school and the parent, because the child is non-binary, believes it would not be appropriate for the child to attend. It would not be meeting her needs. She got into a school in Coolmine but was told by the Department it could not fund that. If ethos is a criterion cited to the other parents I have mentioned, why is school transport not paid for to allow her to get from Ashtown to Coolmine? There has to be recognition of ethos, and the ethos of the Ashtown school is such that she cannot go to it.