Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister can read from a script like that all she likes, but the rules of the scheme are not reflective of the reality of rural schools and their large catchment areas. In a letter about the school transport scheme for children with special educational needs, the Minister told me that "children are eligible for transport where they have special educational needs arising from a diagnosed disability and are attending the nearest recognised mainstream school, special class/special school or unit, that is or can be resourced, to meet their special educational needs". The term "nearest school" limits their options.

Will the Minister guarantee me and the families across the country that, however long it takes for the report to be put in her hand, she will address this problem well before the children are due back in school and she will not leave it until the last minute to announce a half-hearted attempt to resolve it? Parents should not have to fight with the Minister or Bus Éireann so that their children can go to the schools they deem best suited to their children. They have been through enough. Please do not inflict more hardship on them.

The example in Rearcross shows how crazy the system is. That young man's brothers are getting on a bus that passes their gate, yet the Department says that he is not eligible for the same transport. It is not an isolated case. Every Deputy, probably including the Minister, is getting told this by families continuously, especially now that we are in the school holidays and people are starting to worry that, come September, their children will not get school transport because of some silly rule that the Minister just referenced.

See this speech in context