Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Unfair and cruel. Those are the words of parents of children in a national school in Swords whose kids have been left at the side of the road by a school transport system that has failed, that is not fit for purpose and that needs to be totally remodelled. It has been a nightmare summer for children up and down the country and that nightmare has continued into the autumn for those who have been left behind. In the constituency the Minister and I share in Fingal, more than a dozen children in Swords cannot get to Gaelcholáiste Ghlór na Mara in Balbriggan, their regional local Gaelcholáiste. There is a bus service, which goes from Blake's Cross. This system does not meet the needs of the growing population and does not recognise the more diverse range of patron bodies that now exist in the country. Will this Government reform the school transport scheme so that it is fit for purpose? Will it provide school transport for those children in Swords to get to the Gaelcholáiste in Balbriggan?

See this speech in context