Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Since the Government changed the rules in 2012, I have raised numerous cases in which the rule was unfairly applied. Even in cases where older children in a family have qualified for transport to a certain school, younger siblings are required to attend a different school if it is closer or else pay €350 per year to take the same bus as their older brother or sister.

That is an exceptionally unfair and unjust position in which to put many of those families. For families which do not have the money, it is an excruciating decision whether to allow a child to go with his or her older brother or sister and stump up the €350 or to send the child alone to a different school.

The specific instance to which I refer relates to a decision by Bus Éireann in recent weeks in respect of the Urris area in County Donegal and using what is called Mamore Gap, a mountain road 800 ft above sea level. Despite the fact it is just beside the coast, it is not passable for most of the winter. For those families to continue to go to Carndonagh community school, to which they have always had transport in the past, they will have to pay €350 per child or €650 per family if there are more than two children in the family. Currently, there are no means by which unfair decisions like that can be addressed by the Department. I am asking the Minister of State to look at the circumstances of that case to try to ensure that common sense prevails. In other instances, of which there has been a number, he should try to bring some sense to the situation and not continue with the head-in-the-sand approach we have seen over the last two or three years.

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