Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister and her officials on the work they have done over the past few months. It is a busy time of year for them every time this issue arises but I genuinely commend them on their work. Deputy Sherlock is exiting the Chamber. He mentioned that a lot of good work has been done in a lot of villages across Cork North-Central and Cork East on trying to supply additional buses. Once again, I commend the Minister on the fact that over 150,000 tickets, I think, have been issued at this stage. That is lost in the wider discussion when we get to talking about all the different anomalies that are there in all the different villages and hinterlands that service big towns and where the schools are located. I wanted to put that on the record initially.

As regards the wider issue, I would like to talk about how prescriptive Bus Éireann is in its interpretation and implementation of its guidelines. I raised this here on the floor with the Tánaiste last Thursday. I refer to the use of a measuring wheel on one particular route that concerned me. Going forward with the review, I hope, in respect of the type of prescriptive interpretation that is there, that a bit more flexibility might be given to Bus Éireann to use a bit more common sense, which I think was the phrase the Tánaiste used here last Thursday, insofar as we can try to get as many children onto buses as we can rather than disqualify them for minor reasons.

As regards my hope for the review, many Ministers here have spoken about bringing forward the school transport review for a number of years. To be fair, however, the Minister, Deputy Foley, has brought it forward and is working on it. I know that information will come out at a later date in that regard. I hope that an awful lot of the anomalies to which we refer in this Chamber can be dealt with when that review is published.

As an aside, if I may refer to the issue of school bus escorts, which I note Deputy Ó Laoghaire raised previously, we are finding it quite difficult at the moment to source a great many bus escorts for children with special educational needs, in particular, and it is quite concerning. I have talked to the bus escorts themselves and they tell me what they are being paid. It is mostly women in this case who have contacted me. They are paid I think about €12.40 an hour. They do not even necessarily know who their employer is in many cases. They do not know if they are section 38 or section 39. That in itself might require that the whole school bus escort system be reviewed as part of any review the Department is doing into the wider school transport issue.

I will finish on a positive note and commend the Minister and her officials, as I did earlier. When we have engaged with her office and Bus Éireann, I have found them very progressive to work with, and when issues can be resolved, they are. I remind people participating in this debate that 150,000 tickets have been issued. It is more than have ever been issued. Yes, many people and many families are still disappointed and a lot of work remains to be done, but we must not lose sight of that progressive step since Deputy Foley has become Minister for Education.

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