James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State acknowledged the issue, that of a commercial bus operator. A secondary issue is that, according to information I have been reading today about the current and revised systems, the distance calculation for where the concessionary bus tickets kick in will exclude an urban town like Youghal under the current system as well as the reformed system up to 2030. I raised these issues with the Minister for Education at one of our parliamentary party briefings. We had a system that worked well. From an environmental point of view, it kept a significant number of cars off the road. From a quality of life perspective, it was very beneficial to families who relied on it, be they working households or households without vehicular transport to take their children to the relevant primary or post-primary schools in the morning.

A third issue is the one that worries me the most. There is a feeling locally, one that I just want to acknowledge, that the State is paying for transport for people living in the former Quality Hotel and other locations where IPAS accommodation is being provided when a commercial bus company has withdrawn its service, which is not the fault of the State but does affect 120 children locally. Could a request for the community benefit fund be made by the Department of Education to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys’s Department or could the former examine its own resources and budgets to see whether funding could be found for individual situations? It is important for towns like Youghal that there be an acknowledgment that they have taken on a very heavy burden. They need additional support from the Government where it is deemed appropriate.

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