Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The school transport scheme is 50 years in existence. It started in 1968. It is commendable that in the current year, 117,000 children are availing of it. Some 12,000 of them have special needs. Over 4,500 vehicles have covered what I am told was over 100 million km since the scheme started. As the old poem states, "The wheels on the bus go round and round", but unfortunately the doors of the bus open and shut. Sometimes they are shut to many.

Having just come from a meeting of the education committee, which was discussing this, I realise 450 special needs children are still waiting to be able to avail of this service. The reality is that between the contract with Bus Éireann and the Department, there are both planning and communications issues. I will start with the communications issues. Despite reviews and promises to examine the matter, the report in regard to communications could be to do better. We are told additional staff were taken on and that 35,000 calls were made, amounting to some 1,200 per day. The reality is that the lack of feedback to public representatives and parents has been nothing other than appalling. It is my firm belief that, where communication is concerned, one has to take responsibility. It is my belief and that of many others in this House, particularly the rural Deputies, who are particularly affected by this issue, that this scheme is demand-led.

We have been told that €190 million has been allocated for it, of which €27 million is a further allocation for children with special educational needs. It is not fit for purpose financially and the Minister of State must get a grip on that. I appeal for full reform of this.

Finally, with regard to planning, I was a school teacher for 35 years and talking about a small window of time during which all of this must be processed is not acceptable. As a school teacher, if I take a special needs pupil into my school, I must plan to do so two or three years in advance. Likewise, the same should be done when the pupil is going to secondary school.

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