Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We can set our watches and mark our calendars to predict this issue. It arises every July and August in my constituency. It is predictable but also solvable if the will is there to modernise, update and reform a system that owes more to the 1970s and 1980s that it does to a modern republic. Largely thanks to the work of one of the Minister's predecessors and our former colleague, Ruairí Quinn, families and young people now have a diversity of choice and a plurality of options with regard to the ethos of the school their children will attend. That is the right thing to do. We are, however, stuck with a system where pupils can only get a ticket to the school that is geographically closest to them. A case in point, and one that comes up practically every year, is Collon in County Louth. This is a village a few miles to the west of my home town of Drogheda. The vast majority of children in the area go to school either in Ardee or Drogheda, yet their local school, which is a fine school, is in Dunleer. A very significant number, if not the majority, of children in the area go to schools in Drogheda and in Ardee, yet every year they have to apply for concessionary tickets.

Part of the review has to deal with how Bus Éireann deals with people who make enquiries of them. It is a company which is State-owned but also one that is 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. The way we know that is because we know how it treats even elected representatives who make representations to it and to which it simply does not reply in some cases for months on end. Last year, I spent virtually all year emailing Bus Éireann in respect of a school bus route that dealt with the parish of Inishkeen. There was a request by local parents for a route change in order to ensure the route was safer and no response whatsoever was given. All I requested was for an inspector to meet the families on-site and I still requesting that. This year, we are engaging with Bus Éireann in respect of children who take the bus from Carrickmacross to Inishkeen, through to Dundalk and who relied on the 166 service. The time of that service was changed to 5.30 p.m. with no consultation whatsoever. Guess what? There is a Local Link n

I understand that concessionary tickets do what they say on the tin - they are concessionary tickets - but that speaks to the heart of the problem, that is, that the choices people have at the moment are not being supported by the school transport policy. We have education policy and school provision policy pulling in one direction and school transport policy pulling in the other. It is high time the system was modernised and reformed. I cannot understand why it is taking so long to produce a report we had expected to see well before now.

I will make two brief points in conclusion. I was getting phone calls a few weeks ago, the Friday before schools started back on the Monday, from an area called Harestown, County Louth, near Monasterboice, about a small rural school. The contractor there who usually undertakes the service, it seems, has not renewed the contract. The parents were told only on the Friday before school started on Monday. That is completely unacceptable.

Then, as other speakers have said, we have had issues with people having to take time off work and make arrangements with other family members to take children to school. That has been resolved but it speaks to the heart of the problem. I would appreciate it if the Minister would put on the record later what the problem is with tendering. Is it price? Is it cost? What is the issue? Why are people not coming forward to undertake the contracts?

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