Dáil debates

Thursday, 24 October 2019

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

 

12:45 pm

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government referred to rural small schools and stated that the closed school rule for school transport should be maintained. Many schools were closed in outlying areas in many parts of rural Ireland and the pupils from the catchment areas of the closed schools were given school transport to the central school in the parish. This was known as the closed school rule. Parents were happy to allow these small schools on the outskirts of a parish to be closed because they were guaranteed school transport in the future. However, the last Government scrapped the closed school rule and pupils in the catchment areas of many of the closed schools were denied school transport and were told they had to go to the nearest school, which was often in another parish and not the central school that replaced their own school. In many cases the school bus is passing the doors of pupils who have been denied school transport even though they are within the catchment area of the closed school. It is a living nightmare for many parents in west Cork, particularly for the parents of children going to school in Ballineen trying to get transport to the secondary school in Bandon. The public and parents were misled that the issue was resolved: there are still ten children on the roadside. It has not been resolved. When the Government restore the closed school rule as promised in the programme for Government?

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