Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will keep my comments brief as a lot of the points have been made already. My concern, which I raised during the summer months when a report was provided through freedom of information to RTÉ, relates to issues with the roadworthiness of vehicles being used to transport public passengers. The figures obtained by RTÉ from the Department do not cover school transport exclusively. They relate to all public transport. Let us be clear about that. However, there is an element of the figures which covers school transport. In the correspondence between the Road Safety Authority and Bus Éireann, the chairperson of the former targeted and pointed to concerns albeit she acknowledged that some progress was being made. However, she said that progress was slow and that concerns remained as to the roadworthiness of certain vehicles being used to transport students. At the time, I wrote to the Minister, Deputy Ross, who has responsibility for transport, albeit he does not always realise that. I wrote to him about looking to Bus Éireann to carry out a complete assessment of all buses, not only those within its own fleet but also those buses contracted to provide school transport. If that were done, parents of children could be safe in the knowledge that every bus used has a valid, up-to-date roadworthiness certificate. Can Mr. Kent confirm that every bus contracted by the State to carry school children has an up-to-date, valid roadworthiness certificate? Can he also confirm whether in circumstances, for example, in which Robert Troy Coaches Ltd. applied for a contract to provide a service and I supplied a brand new bus for the purposes of obtaining the contract, there is anything to prevent me, having obtained the contract, from using another bus within my fleet which might not be of the same standard at a later stage? Finally, how is it that there are buses out there that the Road Safety Authority has concerns about regarding their quality and roadworthiness? It is so concerned that it has taken the time to write directly to the chairperson of Bus Éireann about the issue?

I am not sure if the following point was raised earlier. It is about circumstances where there is spare capacity on a bus servicing a town. I am talking here about Mullingar and my home village of Ballinacarrigy where some children are attending post-leaving certificate courses in Mullingar Community College but cannot qualify for a discretionary bus pass even though there is ample space on the bus. Is that something which could be looked at favourably?