Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

If there are no members who wish to come in, I have a few additional points to make.

There was a pilot school transport scheme led by the Minister of State. It has worked well. Some areas needed a lot of tweaking, such as Sixmilebridge in my area. Some other parts of the country and county worked much better. Every now and again, the Department announces that there will be a brand new school in a brand new, up and coming community with new housing developments, which we need more of. A new principal will be recruited and everything will be new. It is a school that has never existed and is usually run by Educate Together or an ETB. I suggest that we pilot something far more innovative when we get a brand new school like that.

Like many members, I have been to the United States of America. In any small village or town, there will be two or three buses parked up that belong to the school or school community and there is a local governance model for it. Would it not be wonderful if we could get to the point where one of these new schools could be given a bus and told that, when staff are being recruited - a caretaker, SNAs and a secretary need to be recruited - someone who is licensed to drive that vehicle is to be recruited? It happened in the secondary school I attended. I grew up in south Clare where the local secondary school was in Limerick city. My secondary school happened to win "Blackboard Jungle", presented by Ray D'Arcy, and we won a minibus. It was glorious. The minibus arrived into the yard with balloons hanging off the mirrors. The caretaker was asked to get a licence to drive a minibus. We were the only school in Limerick, Clare or the country perhaps that had its own school bus. When we wanted to go somewhere, we did not have to ring the local coach or bus company. We had a bus at the front door. That has worked well. There were no national car tests, NCTs, then and there was duct tape and everything holding it together when I left school, but it was still going. Would it not be great, like in America, if a bus were assigned to schools? Perhaps it could have a specific colour. It could go to hurling and swimming lessons and collect children for school. It would be efficient.

The only other suggestion I want to make relates to something a principal said to me recently. It was a ball hop but it was not really. Her school is at risk of closing, as often happens in rural areas. She asked what if the Department flipped things on their head with schools like hers and instead of looking at the enrolment numbers the school was losing, losing teachers and the school closing, the Department could look at buildings like hers that were kitted out for education and say the school way out down the peninsula could be a special school for children in the remote area. Not everyone would have to come into the county town for special education. Cars and buses could go the other way. Rather than closing the school and wondering what to do with the lovely building, some education could be moved out to more satellite schools.

They are two suggestions that are a little out of the ordinary. I apologise for the curve balls, but the Minister of State is a man who is well able to catch them and throw them back.