Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the Minister's speech. She stated that her legislative measures would come into effect next September and that they would apply new regulations on school admissions, but I cannot understand why she said she needed a year for that to happen and that this Bill would somehow mess up what she was trying to do. There is nothing in it that contradicts the Act at all. Instead, it is complementary of the Act's objectives.

I compliment Deputy Ó Ríordáin and the wider Labour Party on introducing this Bill. It goes to the heart of what we are about. I listened to other Deputies, mainly from urban backgrounds, talking about overcrowding in and pressure on schools. I come from the opposite end of the scale and a place where we only wish we had more students. There are three-teacher schools shrinking to two-teacher schools in rural areas because we cannot get enough students. In fairness, we have high achievers and children who progress well. Unfortunately, they must go further afield to attend university, particularly those from the north west where there is no university. They have to go outside the region and very few return because there are few jobs for graduates there.

All of these issues are linked. Deputy Ó Ríordáin discussed poverty and what it does. Poverty is not just the absence of money. It has other aspects. It engenders an absence of ambition, of possibilities and of looking forward to a brighter future. We see that around us everywhere. We come across people who are struggling in life and for whom a little crisis will muck up whatever future they have. Something as simple as a washing machine breaking down could be a crisis in their household because they live week to week and only have enough to get by. They and their families live under stress, and it is difficult for a family living under stress to have the mental capacity to plan for a positive future.

Education is the one thing in the country that we have always said is free. It goes back to Donogh O'Malley and the concept of free education, particularly at second level. That was revolutionary and magnificent.

Bit by bit, we see it creeping back. In recent years,more charges have come in for children going to school. It may be the pressures of the capitation grant, whereby schools do not get enough money and then they put a little pressure on parents to try to come up with some. All of that leads to a withdrawal of free education replaced by partially free education. That needs to end and the Minister seriously needs to examine that.

I have in mind situations involving school buses. When I was going to school, we got the school bus and there was no charge for it. Now there is a charge for it. Now there are numerous rules relating to it, including how close a student is to the school and how many children are in the catchment area. If the number is insufficient, the bus will not go down a given road. Where the bus stops is another issue. If it does not stop at a student's door, the student has to go so far to get the bus. If a family has to put a child into the car to go to meet the bus, they may as well go the whole way to the school because it would save the €600 per year it costs to pay for the bus.

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