Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I brought that matter of school bus transport scheme to the Taoiseach pre-recess. He gave an undertaking that the Minister, Deputy Foley, would get in touch and do her best and he would do his best for the people of Wexford. That did not happen. Hundreds of children across the county of Wexford do not have school transport. Their working parents who are contributing hard-earned cash to our tax take have to drive them to school and make provision, which is very difficult in a rural county. No child should be have an imposition placed upon them because their parent is working. Some have had to change their school. Others are left dependent on whether or not they can get a lift home. This is a solvable problem. I appreciate that the Taoiseach cannot just wave a magic wand, but there are issues year-on-year that need to be dealt with. There is a ban on over-70s driving on a tendered bus route. There is a simple Garda vetting process that takes forever. There is a ban on buses aged over 20 catering for schoolchildren. They are perfectly good buses I might add. All these things can be addressed to solve this problem, but no action appears to be being taken. These people feel very let down.

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