Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the invitation to make representations on behalf of the schools in question to the Department and the Minister of State and I will avail of the opportunity to do so.

The Minister of State referred to special circumstances in County Donegal. Ballybofey is situated close to the Border. I was very critical of the old catchment boundary system which was archaic and needed to be reviewed. However, the new system contains a number of anomalies which need to be rooted out. If the Department and the Minister were flexible, a common-sense solution could be found. It is in no one's benefit to have family members split. While the argument could be made that the aim of the lead-in time was to allow parents to move children from one school to another, it is not possible or sensible to do this midstream in the case of a family with a junior and senior cycle student.

I refer to the impact of the scheme on the administration of schools. Some schools still do not know whether the 40 children will come to them because the children still have the option of not availing of the school transport scheme arrangements. The information on staffing needs was required to be submitted to the Department by last March, but schools are still unsure of the numbers of children who plan to attend. There is a lot of anger among parents. I will make representations to the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, who has direct responsibility for the school transport scheme to have it adapted.

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