James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Like other Deputies, I am not a member of this committee but I wanted to attend today because I have a number of school transport issues to raise, primarily local ones in my constituency, but also about national policy. I agree with everything that has been said by speakers so far. There is much commonality across the issues. It is unusual to have such a number of non-members attending committee meetings but it is a sign of how passionate people feel about the issue and the fact that people are experiencing difficulty with the system. The high level of attendance in itself says a lot about the system.

School transport is one of the most frequently raised issues in my constituency office. It is also one of the most frustrating. As practising politicians we deal with all kinds of different issues but we can usually make some progress on them or at least get information or a response of some kind. School transport is one of the few issues where one feels one is banging one's head against a wall trying to get any information or updates. Before I was elected to the House I was a public representative on the council and I dealt with the same issues in terms of the Bus Éireann interface and the lines we are encouraged to use. I hate having to say it but it was extremely difficult to get an answer. I do not even mean the right answer, I mean any answer. When one telephoned a number it rang out and eventually one left a voice message. A few months later one would possibly get a call back but usually one would not. That was my experience until recently.

Such was the extent of my frustration I got the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, involved. He is the Minister of State with responsibility for school transport. I met him some months ago and expressed my concerns and frustrations to him about the interface with the company and getting information. The Minister of State took the points on board. He said a revamped communications system and interface were being rolled out. I have engaged with it and it is probably a little bit better but there is some distance to go in terms of how parents and public representatives interface on school transport. It should not be up to public representatives. Parents of school-going children should be able to interface with Bus Éireann and the Department of Education and Skills themselves without ever having to invoke us. We should only be contacted in exceptional circumstances but, unfortunately, the interface is so poor that parents do not know how to do that or if they do, they do not get any response and they end up coming to me and my colleagues and we try our best to do something. We often find we make a little more progress than they did.

I have contacted Bus Éireann representatives via the email interface, buseireann.ie, recently and it is okay but it can take a while and can be haphazard. One issue I raised was responded to reasonably quickly, as in a few weeks, but another took over a month and it was not entirely satisfactory, but at least it was an improvement that there was an answer even if it was not the desired answer. I give credit to Bus Éireann for that.

I do not wish to overlap with the issues raised by previous speakers but I agree with many of the points made such as the arbitrariness of the rule on the nearest school. Other speakers referred to the linkage and the tradition among families where generations have gone from a particular primary school to a particular secondary school or the fact that a community goes to school in a particular place because of the sporting ties, cultural ties, parish ties, historical affinity or other traditions of parents or grandparents going to a school. There are all kinds of reasons more complex than the pure linear distance from A to B, which seems to be a crude measure.

It is very unfair to say to a parent that a child had a discretionary place on a bus route for the past three, four or even five years in some cases but that it is not available this year because the route was re-tendered, the bus is smaller this year than it was last year and there are fewer places available on it. The view is that it is hard luck but the child cannot get a place even though he or she got one last year and the year before and perhaps a sibling did also. It is very difficult for parents in that situation who would have a legitimate expectation of having a place for the duration of a school term. I accept that it says somewhere in the small print that a place is not always guaranteed but it strikes me as a legitimate expectation that a place would be provided on a bus, or at least if a space was provided initially that it would be available until the end of term. The rules of the scheme need to be looked at in terms of how it operates and how parents can then plan for their own arrangements.

Parents take decisions about the school their children go to, where they go to work and how they organise their commute. They have to consider whether they need one car or two cars. Many people have had to leave their workplace or change their working arrangements to accommodate school transport. The issue is having a serious and detrimental impact not just on the individual child but on the wider family because of the lack of consistency in the scheme and the lack of information and advance planning. One does not know from one year to the next whether one's child will secure a place.

I wish to briefly raise two local issues. As the Chairman said, perhaps the response could be provided in writing or in some other way. I should not have to come before the committee to do this but unfortunately other avenues have not been fruitful. Therefore, we are where we are. I represent Kildare North. There has been a major issue in the north-west Kildare area, in particular Johnstownbridge and Broadford, which are two busy and growing villages with significant numbers among the school-going population going to school in Edenderry. It has been a tradition for generations that children from the area have gone to school in St. Mary's in Edenderry. That was always done. They played sport in that area also. The school bus went from a 60-seater to a 48-seater prior to last September and 12 families lost their places. People just about managed to make do. All kinds of arrangements were worked out. In one case a child was travelling in a car waving to her friends on the bus who were going along the same road beside her, and she was looking at empty bus seats. The child in question was told she could not get a place. There were many such difficulties.

I would like to establish what is the position on that route because what has happened now is that those who can afford to are clubbing together in order to get a private bus and those who cannot afford it are left in the lurch. It is a case of unequal access to education. It is a fundamental issue that must be examined. I would appreciate it if the Johnstownbridge and Broadford to Edenderry route could be looked at in terms of what capacity will be provided coming into the new school year, and as early as possible because it is already near the end of July and parents must begin to make some plans for next year.

Another local issue relates to Sallins, which has a large rural catchment area and children travel into school in Naas and have done for many years. One particular route covers Sallins, Sherlockstown, Kileenmore, Ardclough and Alasty. It is a rural loop. Without getting into the minutiae of it, the bus goes clockwise in the morning and counter-clockwise in the evening. One would expect that the children who are collected first in the morning would be dropped home first in the evening. They leave the house a little earlier than their schoolmates, up to an hour earlier in some cases, but one would expect that would balance out in the evening and that they would get home an hour earlier. I raised the issue about a month ago and I got an explanation by email yesterday to the effect that this is the way it has been done for the past 25 years since the route was opened. I do not think that is a good enough reason because times change, demographics change and populations and routes change.

The fact that it was always done that way does not mean it is the right way. On the outward journey the bus goes one way and on the return journey it goes the reverse way. It is not right that the children who get picked up first in the morning get dropped off last thing at night, which means they lose out at both ends of the day. The poor children are exhausted going home and the parents are bedraggled trying to keep up with it all. I do not expect an immediate response although it would be great if there was one but I would welcome a response to the issues in due course and in a timely fashion so that we can intercede if we need to for the coming year.

If the witnesses were to take one thing from the meeting it is that Bus Éireann should improve the interface at least so that public representatives and parents can have a decent engagement and be able to get the information in a timely fashion when they need it. That would be a great help.