Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and that is how it should work but, unfortunately, it does not. I can think of many examples. I will not get into it at this meeting, but there needs to be cognisance of the fact that children may be attending school A, B or C but it may not have been their first choice or it may not be their local school. I know of kids who lived in Ardnacrusha, yet they got Pallaskenry secondary school way out in west County Limerick, which makes no sense. The Department needs to have cognisance of that.

I will ask my last question about all of these pilot schemes and innovations and changing the qualifying criteria.

Has the Department ever looked at just flipping all of this and coming up with something new? Has it ever looked at piloting a school having its own bus or having dedicated school buses, like the iconic yellow buses they have in the United States? Has the Department ever looked at the role of caretakers? If the Department is taking on more school caretakers, maybe it could pilot a scheme whereby a certain number of new school caretaker appointments could have, in the recruitment criteria, a requirement for the individuals to have a driving licence. In this way, these people could drive a school bus during the day. Has the Department ever looked at innovating in that regard or is it still welded to the idea of having contractors in Bus Éireann fulfilling all school transport?