Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to debate the issue of school transport but not the need to debate it in yet another autumn. The Minister will recall that when we raised this issue last year we were told to wait for a review of school transport, which at that stage had been ongoing for one and half years. It has now been ongoing for two and a half years and we still do not have it. All the while, we are hearing the stories of families who have been discommoded and put under enormous pressures because in some instances school buses are passing by their front doors and they have to put their children into a car and drive past those buses.

It is ironic that just last week, the House debated a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government not to increase the cost of petrol and diesel. One of the arguments thrown back at us was that we should encourage people to take public transport. Yet, here we are with thousands of families and children throughout this State who are crying out for the opportunity to use public transport to get to school and that opportunity is being denied to them.

The review has to address how Bus Éireann deals with people who make inquiries of it. It is a State-owned company in receipt of millions of euro of taxpayers' money to provide the school transport scheme and the way it treats many parents and families is beyond disgraceful. We know that because we know how it treats elected representatives who make representations to it. In some cases, it simply does not reply for months on end. Last year, I spent virtually all year emailing Bus Éireann in respect of a school bus route that covers the parish of Inishkeen. Local parents requested a route change to ensure a safer route. There was no response whatsoever. All I requested was for an inspector to meet the families on-site and I am still making that request. This year, we are engaging with Bus Éireann in respect of children who take the bus from Carrickmacross to Inishkeen through to Dundalk. They relied on the 166 service and the time of that service was changed to 5.30 p.m. with no consultation whatsoever but guess what? A Local Link service leaves at 4.10 p.m and would be perfectly suitable for the school children. What happens? The Local Link service does not accept school transport scheme tickets. There are anomalies like that in virtually every parish in the State. If the Minister does not get a handle on them, this will be just another debacle and failure to be attributed to the Government. I urge her to make sure the review is published without delay and we see action so that every child who needs a place on a school bus to get to school has access to one.

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