Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a serious issue with the school transport system due to a lack of local knowledge and co-ordination by those people who are charged with running it. This year we have witnessed chaos in several areas of Laois and Offaly regarding the operation of the scheme. I have seen this problem reoccur every year and we need a solution to be put in place, which is what I want to focus on.

Parents who paid the fee for their children as far back as April were informed just two weeks before schools were due to be reopened that they had no ticket. These are people who were clearly within the catchment area. Families who had tickets last year are now without tickets. In some cases, buses are travelling with loads of vacant seats while parents drive behind them with their children to the nearest school. The matter of the nearest school to a family is a real issue and I have had to argue with Bus Éireann about what the nearest school is for a number of families. Bus Éireann said that a family was due to get concessionary tickets but the family was almost 4 km closer to the school they are sending their children to than the one determined by Bus Éireann. I questioned this and Bus Éireann said that the parents have to stick a pin on a map. I said the family gave Bus Éireann a post code. Some people are not good map readers. I am not too bad at it but putting a pin on a map is not an effective method. That family still does not have tickets for their bus. Other issues have come up over the years and I have seen it again this year. There are closed and unsuitable roads. The roads are clearly closed and Bus Éireann is saying the bus should go down them. There are also examples of roads that are 3 m wide with bushes hanging over them. You would not go up these roads in a small car or jeep, never mind a coach, as they are totally unsuitable and buses will not use them.

Local knowledge is key in this and I have received dozens of complaints about this issue. In particular this is causing problems for parents who are working full-time and for parents in a single-car household. It is clear that the absence of local co-ordination and knowledge is causing the chaos. Clear and timely information is essential for both parents and Bus Éireann. We need to have an identifiable co-ordinator in each county, who has the local knowledge and who would help to resolve much of this. As other people in this House have done, I have spent the last two months trying to resolve some of this but if there is a local co-ordinator in each county, similar to the Local Link bus service, that person would have direct contact with local schools and bus operators but they would also know the road network. This needs to be done and I am calling on the Minister to put this in place.

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