Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

Community development is also important in large suburbs and urban areas. As the Taoiseach knows, there has been massive development in Dublin West, in many cases without the necessary transport and schools.

We have large populations but now we have no transport links between many of the suburbs. Could the Taoiseach look into a situation? There are 11 families in Tyrrelstown who cannot get into their local school, Le Chéile Secondary School, so they all have to go to Ongar, which is 9 km away. They have been told they are not eligible for school transport because the school in Ongar is not their nearest school. Also, there is no bus route supplied at all in the area. I have written to Go-Ahead Ireland to see if it can extend a bus service it has and Bus Éireann has again rejected its application. What are these 11 parents meant to do? Fly to the school? Some of them are single-income households that do not have cars so they have been trying to organise carpooling for the last year. They are being pushed back by the State at every single turn. Many of them are extremely hard workers who came to this country 20 years ago. Surely they are entitled to school transport. I ask the Taoiseach to look into the situation.

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