Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last October, the Department initiated a review of the school transport scheme, which included an examination of the current scheme, how it operates and its broader effectiveness and sustainably. This was to ensure adequate support and the provision of services to students and families. The final report has not been published. It is important to acknowledge that there was a significant investment in school transport last year at a time when many families needed it. This was really appreciated by many families. This year, however, my constituency office was again inundated with calls from parents who are struggling to get access to public transport. They have queries about buses not running due to non-availability and the poor rates paid to private operators and previous concession ticket holders being rejected despite free seats being available on buses.

In today's society the majority of people work to end make ends meet. Getting children to school is a huge stress. School transport is even more important to families who have a child with special educational needs. Why are issues with under-provision raised every year? Should parents risk losing their jobs to drive their children to school because they can no longer rely on buses that had been available for years? When families have a special child they need actual support but they do not get responses from the dedicated support email facility provided by Bus Éireann. These people have big issues with that. This is causing unnecessary stress to many people. It has caused many difficulties and division in rural areas. Children are only eligible at primary school level if they attend their nearest national school and reside not less than 3.2 km from the school. At post-primary level, they must attend their nearest post-primary school and reside not less than 4.8 km from the school.

If we want to get people out of their cars, we need to move away from eligibility criteria and towards provision for all. We need to ensure better access to capacity and resources. How can we do that when there is so much red tape? Some bus services apply an arbitrary age cap, which restricts drivers from taking on this part-time employment. We need to incentivise people, especially in rural Ireland, by removing any such barriers and rolling out an attractive package. If we can get ahead of the capacity and resources, we can ensure an adequate school transport service is available to student and families. To do this, we must provide adequate funding in budget 2024 to expand the provision of the school transport scheme, with the aim of dramatically increasing resources and incentives, while at the same time addressing the impact of climate change by reducing car journeys.

As I said, a significant amount of money was spent over the past three years in County Louth and east Meath. I commend the number of extensions being done on schools. There is serious demand for school places, be it in primary or post-primary schools, and it is very important that money is invested. A lot of money has been invested in school transport, yet we have the same problems. A lady visited my constituency office this week who is spending more than €50 per week on taxis to take her child to and from school. She just cannot afford this as this affects whether she can put food on the table.

What is the problem? School transport has very serious issues at the moment. While I understand the Government is doing its best to facilitate Ukrainians and is doing a fantastic job in that regard, at the same time we still have a problem with school transport despite the investment in it. What can we do? This problem needs to be sorted out. Is the money going to the right places? As many Deputies have mentioned, the age limit for drivers is an issue. People should not be judged on their age but on their ability to do the work. In Dundalk, a large number of people who contact my constituency office want to work. Once people reach a certain age they cannot work. I have raised a number of issues and I ask the Minister to examine them.

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