Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have raised the issue of the school transport system and the ongoing review previously in this House. Today, I raise the issue of the emerging exceptional no-service interim grant payment, what appears to be yet another sticking plaster on what is rapidly becoming a broken school transport system. These children have applied, have been approved and have paid for a seat on a bus, only for their parents to be told that no bus exists. From the conversations I have had with parents, I know many of them are also children with special educational needs. I spoke to one grandmother in County Clare who is travelling to Dublin on a morning basis in order that her twin grandchildren, one of whom is a wheelchair user, can get to school. Another mother, whose 13-year-old daughter was on the school bus for the first few days but is now off the school bus, is using her annual leave to sit in the car park of the school and watch a half-empty bus that her poor daughter cannot get onto pull in. This simply is not good enough. How many families are in this situation?

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