Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important subject. This year is not just another episode in a long-running saga of Government failure on school transport. This year represents a new low. In addition to the usual annual debacle, never before have we had the situation on such a scale where tickets were issued and routes confirmed but, at the eleventh hour, in some cases the day before school was due to start, services were cancelled. There was no bus, no driver, no nothing. It was and remains a shambles. Responsibility for this lies squarely at the feet of this dithering, inactive Government. It makes no sense, for example, that a bus driver can be aged over 70 and can drive kids to a GAA game at 9.30 a.m. but cannot be over 70 and drive them to school at 9.00 a.m. The Minister and Minister of State should do something about that.

The situation in my constituency of Meath East, which I share with the Minister, is a microcosm of a State-wide scandal. In August, scores of parents contacted my office in sheer desperation. Their children, some of whom had bus tickets for years, were left without seats on buses. Their plans for the new school term were thrown into utter disarray. Why? It was because of this Government's blatant failure to implement the very recommendations of a review it commissioned. That is incredible. The review of the school transport scheme took three long years to complete. It was finally published in February of last year, 19 months ago. One of its central headline recommendations was to reduce the arbitrary and outdated "near a school" distance criteria. It proposed that from September 2025, the distance would be reduced from 3.2 km to 1 km for primary school pupils and from 4.8 km to 2 km for secondary students. This single change would have been transformative. It would have shifted many children from the precarious concessionary category to secure eligible status. It would have opened the scheme up to additional pupils, finally acknowledging the reality of rural Ireland and modern commuting patterns. What happened? Absolutely nothing. The recommendation was shelved. Instead of a step change, we had a step backwards. We had a tiny number of pilot studies - just 14 on a network of over 10,600 routes. Consultants have been appointed and working groups set up. The Government had a review. Now, it has set up groups to review that review instead of implementing it. You literally could not make it up.

The consequence of this inaction is children across Meath and the State are locked out of school transport yet again. The promise of the review has been broken. The failure to act by the Minister and her Department has directly resulted in children being denied a safe, reliable way to get to school. This is a conscious choice that has hurt families. To make matters worse, Bus Éireann outright refuses to answer basic questions. This is insult to injury and must be addressed. The impact of all of this is real and profound. It turns family life upside down. Parents are faced with impossible choices trying to co-ordinate school runs that add hours to their day or, in some cases, face the prospect of having to reduce hours or give up their jobs - typically mothers - to make the logistics work.

This is not just a transport issue. It is an issue of childcare, family income, gender equality and children's right to education. The Minister has failed to prepare or to act on and implement the review's key recommendations. This has to change.

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