Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be as quick as I can because I have two esteemed colleagues, Deputies Christopher O’Sullivan and McGuinness who want to get in.

I want to use my time to highlight some of the school transport issues we are trying to resolve at local level in County Longford. I know of a young boy with special needs who attends a special school 40 miles away. He was availing of customised transport to date. A few days before the eve of starting school, his mother was contacted and told he would have to share the transport with three other pupils. As a result, he would have to leave the house at 7 a.m. and would not be home until 6.30 p.m. That is roughly a 12-hour round trip for a young lad who is battling multiple health issues. It was simply inconceivable. Subsequently, she was told he would retain his initial transport provider but several weeks into the school term the matter has not been resolved.

Elsewhere, several pupils on the Ennybegs to Longford town route have been issued with tickets for another bus, even though they could walk to the pick-up point in their local village. Again, there have been several unsuccessful attempts by parents to resolve this issue. On the other side of Longford town, I understand the bus from McGiffs Cross to Ballymahon is at capacity but a number of concessionary ticket holders are still seeking access to the bus. Another pupil with full eligibility for this bus was issued with a ticket for another bus from another pick-up in a village 5 miles away. There have been multiple efforts by the parent concerned to resolve the issue but the same wrong ticket was reissued on two more occasions. A family with three children on the Ballinalee to Moyne bus were concessionary ticket holders but, much like the man who was struck by lightening on three occasions over the past three years, they have not been lucky enough to come out of the lucky dip box for a concessionary ticket. Their father has pointed out that the school transport bus operator has a larger bus sitting at home in the yard that could be used to bring his three children and the other two concessionary ticket holders looking to get that bus. As for the Lisryan to Granard bus, the bus passes the door of four young pupils but yet they are expected to go to a pick up point that is up to 7 miles away. On the Keenagh to Ballymahon bus, siblings had availed of full tickets on the basis of a medical card but there is no ticket for that family this year. The mother was told the bus is at capacity. There was an expectation that they would have got the ticket again this year and this has created an extremely difficult and trying situation in the household. The Drumlish to Moyne service is overrun because of an inordinate increase in the number of pupils attending the school this year. This has had a knock-on effect for the concessionary ticket holders from nearby Newtown Forbes. As a minimum of 14 people are looking to access this bus, clearly we need an additional bus. Another pupil was accessing the service from Ardagh to Ballymahon. The pupil decided to change schools to Longford town. One would imagine it would be a simple task of changing a ticket but this is not so when it comes to Bus Éireann. Finally, I raise the case of a young pupil who was recently diagnosed with life-altering functional neurological disorder. He is a number of years into his secondary school of choice. It is critical that we are able to arrange appropriate school transport for him. I hope the Minister of State will follow up on each of these cases for me afterwards.

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