Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, for being here today, but I do wish the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, was present, because this is a huge issue. It has been a big issue for a number of weeks now. We are not seeing the kind of response that is needed on this issue from the Department of Education, the office of the Minister or, indeed, Bus Éireann.

I am raising this issue on behalf of hundreds of parents and students in Wicklow who are still not able to get the school bus transport scheme. The buses are still not showing up for them. On Friday, 25 August, hundreds received an email from Bus Éireann saying that the school bus that was due to pick up their children on the first day of school, which was the following Monday, was not going to be showing up. No reason was given for this and there was no indication of when it would be resolved. Indeed, very little communication has happened since then.

There has been some effort. The inspector in Wicklow has been doing a lot of work trying to arrange alternatives and to help out. Some routes have been reinstated, but not all routes. There are still many routes that are not operational. Indeed, some routes that were operational seem to have disappeared weeks into the school year. The impact this is having on constituents is absolutely enormous and cannot be overstated. I have heard of parents who have had to take unpaid parental leave to drive their children to school. Parents have taken their annual leave and have used up their holiday time to do it. Parents have had to give up their jobs. One parent has had to hand in her notice because she is now needed to drive her child to school, when she has already paid for the school bus and she had been guaranteed that place would be available for her.

I have been contacted by families who have had to move their children to Bray so that they are actually closer to the school and do not need transport. One ten-year old girl was left on the side of the road when her bus did not show up. Despite it being one of the buses that did start off the year, it suddenly disappeared within a couple of weeks. That ten-year old girl was left at the side of the road with no idea about how to get home or how to get to school. That is completely unacceptable. There are huge health and safety issues associated with this. The communication that the parents have received from Bus Éireann has been really minimal. As a Deputy, I have been trying to contact Bus Éireann and the Minister's office and I am not getting responses on it either, which is really frustrating and very unfair to all those parents who want some clarity on when their child's bus service will be reinstated. I hope that in his response, the Minister of State will be able to fill us all in on exactly what is happening.

One key concern as well is that this is also impacting children with special needs. There are a number of special schools in the constituency and their buses were also not showing up. Ironically, one parent who is a teacher, cannot get transport for his child who has additional needs to get him to school and that teacher may now have to give up their job to drive their child to a special school. It just makes absolutely no sense.

This happens every year. However, this year it is particularly bad. Bus Éireann does not seem to have been prepared for it. Proactive measures do not seem to have been put in place to mitigate this. It is not just an issue in Wicklow. From talking to Deputy Catherine Murphy, I know it is an issue in her constituency in County Kildare. It is also an issue in Cork South-West and even in Dublin Central there is an issue with special needs transport for constituents of my colleague, Deputy Gannon. This is a major issue. I hope the Minister of State has an update that will allay all those parents' fears and will give them the information they need on this.

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