Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, and compliment the Minister for her work to date in that area - work that, unfortunately, is ongoing and has given us all a great number of headaches over the past six months or so. It involves the school catchment areas around north Kildare; and the feeder schools to post-primary schools and the community college in Maynooth from Straffan, Clane and quite a number from Rathcoffey; and a growing population and its needs.

We have tried several remedies and have had numerous discussions so far without a result. It was not due to lack of interest on the Minister's part but we appear to have run into a brick wall every time we approach the school transport section. The school transport section has immediate answers, some of which are totally unrealistic. One child who could not be accommodated on school transport because they were a certain distance from the school was advised to go to the scoil lán Ghaeilge, which would be ridiculous if they were not in a scoil lán Ghaeilge before. That obviously did not arise but the school transport section came up with this issue.

I believe there is a need for a full review of the school transport section in that area with a view to identifying what can be made to work given the exigencies within which the transport system must operate. We recognise that a number of people earlier in the year had a place and then the extra places had to be allocated. In recognition of needs, the Minister kindly extended the service. Unfortunately, people who previously had concessionary passes ended up with no pass while people who previously had no pass ended up with full passage entitlement and free school transport. Without going around the houses several times and talking about it again and again, there should be a specific investigation focused entirely on school transport in north Kildare with its various pressures so we can find out what can be done in the short term so that parents can plan for the future without having the constant worry of how to deal with the situation.

The situation has changed a great deal because of the price of houses, etc. Both parents have to go to work. In the rural areas in question, there is a situation whereby they cannot do so or they cannot do school transport. They certainly cannot do the two. This creates a lot of problems. I ask that the Minister go down the route of a having review.

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