Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I am primarily concerned about the disproportionate impact these proposals will have on smaller schools in rural areas. While I accept we have to live within the budget that has been prescribed for the school transport service, I believe that where there is a will, there is a way. We can minimise the harshest impact of these proposals if we can have a constructive approach to alternative proposals. I would like the Minister to consider a phased implementation of the numbers required, contingent on the level of enrolment or perhaps on the number of teachers in smaller schools. It is unfair to ask a two-teacher school with perhaps 30 or 40 pupils to be obliged to have ten pupils on a school transport route when it previously only had to have seven. We could perhaps have a phased approach or allow those which already have a service for seven pupils to retain it at that level while moving to a level of ten pupils for new services. We can live within the budget.

The closed school rule gave children an entitlement to transport due to the arrangements entered into when the previous school closed. Where only one pupil had an automatic entitlement to transport, does that closed school rule take precedence over the requirement to have ten pupils? As I understand it, the closed school rule will only come into force in September 2012.

See this speech in context