Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The case the Deputy raised has prompted the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, and I to look closely at the suggestion the Deputy is making. We have established a working group between my Department, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and the HSE to investigate how we can best use our scarce resources for transport in all rural areas. This would encompass school transport, rural transport and patient transport. Although we are early in that process, significant possible savings have been identified as well as a possible enhancement of the service available to people in rural areas.

The Deputy is suggesting an interim, piecemeal and ad hoc change to our school transport system, which would not be the wisest approach. We need to consider the matter in an integrated fashion. If we are to amend the school transport and rural transport systems, it needs to be done in a careful and considered manner given that it is a very complex operation, transporting 114,000 children to and from school each day. The Deputy's concerns and suggestions to amalgamate transport for people in rural areas will be considered as we continue along the process of hopefully providing school transport and rural transport systems that best serve the needs of people in rural areas.

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