Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

With the Chair's permission, I will share time with Deputies Nash and Smith.

In the few minutes available to me, for which I am grateful, I acknowledge that the issue in Rathcormack and Kildinan has now been sorted. That is in no small part due to the fact that much pressure was brought to bear by Opposition Deputies and also Government backbenchers. I note the presence of Deputy O'Sullivan in the Chamber as well. This was on the advice of the people in these two areas. I told them they needed to get on to their backbench Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputies to apply pressure, and I think that was done. I, too, applied pressure and I am glad the issue was sorted out. What it has thrown up, however, is the fact that people in Rathcormack had to go through a struggle whereby 11 children did not have a school place for a long time. The closure of the Kildinan school in 1975 created an exception such that when the scheme was changed, children on concessionary tickets had to be taken off the bus. I acknowledge that a solution has been found and hope it will be a sustainable and long-term one.

This case raises a question about these anachronistic geographical rules. If, in the course of the review, the Minister could do away with those geographical rules, we will no longer have this debate year in, year out. If she is moving, as I believe she is, towards a more universal model, given that there seems to be a willingness by people to pay, I believe they will be glad to pay for school transport if there is a supply of buses and drivers available. The geographical rules underpinning the scheme are out of date, outmoded and do not reflect the society in which we now live. They are anachronistic and need to be done away with. They do not reflect the number of people who live in rural parts of our country. I ask the Minister to take that on board.

Again, I acknowledge that a solution has been found for Kildinan and Rathcormack but I refer to the level of stress people had to go through. Last year and this year, children with concessionary tickets had to move off buses to make way for children who adhered to the geographical rule. This approach creates exceptions and tensions within communities and among neighbours - between those who are eligible and those who are not and those who have concessionary tickets and those who do not. If the Minister can create a level playing pitch, and I hope she is moving in the direction of a universal model, it will negate and remove all these tensions which arise on an annual basis.

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