Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The delay in publishing the review is not acceptable. The school transport system has been deeply problematic for a long time. Now that I am no longer the Sinn Féin spokesperson for education, I will speak from my experience in my constituency. The issue most often raised with me relates to special education, primarily the city services in my constituency. One of the big issues I see is the challenge of finding drivers when a route is sanctioned. This is a huge problem which needs to be examined. I am dealing with two cases at the moment, both involving mothers who do not drive. In one instance, the woman in question has serious mobility issues and is waiting on a knee replacement and getting injection. She has to travel across the city on two separate buses to get her child to a special class. Bus Éireann has tendered three times at this stage. We need to look at the tender process in that case. In a similar case, another mother who does not drive has a child she needs to get to a school and the journey is extremely challenging. She has had to ask her mother, friends and others to help her. It is a difficult system. The tendering process is too onerous for an awful lot of people. We are not attracting enough taxi drivers to do this kind of work. Many of them say it is not worth the trouble involved. We need to look at that because an awful lot of people are losing out.

There is scope for the Department to do more with Bus Éireann to provide services once or twice a day in urban areas where there are a number of schools. There may be a need for a service that runs twice a day and can be regularly timetabled outside of the school transport system. I am thinking of Douglas in my constituency in that regard.

With regard to my neighbouring constituencies, I have been asked to raise the fact that there are issues with school transport to Glenville, Upper Glanmire and Castlemagner. In the latter location, 27 children have traditionally travelled on a 45-seater bus to Ballyhass National School. There has been a shift in the population there in the past while. This year, some 60 children applied so 11 children lost out. There was a huge change in the area. The provision of additional buses for Ballyhass National School would be welcome.

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