Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak about school transport, but in particular the urgent issue of accessibility for children with special educational needs. The transport system we have was set up in 1967 to bring children to school safely and reliability. It is managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. However, it not working for every child. We see this every year and their families are let down at the last minute. As the Minister outlined, this scheme supports nearly one in five children. However, it is just not working for every single one of them. For children with special educational needs - and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, has a special responsibility in this area - school transport is not just about getting from A to B. It is their lifeline and allows them to attend the school that is equipped to meet their needs. This is often in schools that are not in their own community, so transport is so important. It gives parents the confidence that their child will get there and back safely and allows families to hold down jobs and manage their daily lives.

There are so many children using school transport. There are 17,500 children with additional needs at primary level and 3,200 at post-primary level. A huge number of people are using that service but, in many cases, these are provided by taxis rather than buses. In fact, we now have 2,700 taxis operating as part of the school transport fleet. Why are we relying on taxis to bring children to school? We are seeing yet another public service being funnelled into the private sector.

As Deputies outlined, every August things happens, in that contracts are not secured, drivers are not found and routes are cancelled. This is a failure of forward planning. In Dublin South-Central, there are a number of families who contacted me over the past number of weeks at their wits' end. There are children whose buses have been cancelled at the last minute leaving families in absolute upheaval. One child cannot get to a school outside of his community by way of school transport. The schools in the vicinity of where he lives are not suitable for his needs, so has to travel outside of it. However, given that school transport is not available means he cannot get there by such means and it puts a huge burden on his family with them having to juggle their already busy days to get him to school. As I said last week in the Dáil, there is a child who has missed so many days of schools that the Educational Welfare Service should have been involved. However, it was not because his parents were not bringing him or he was not bothered but it was because school transport let him down.

What is at stake when transport is withdrawn is not just a missed bus but it is the denial of an education, which children have a right to, and parents are forced to give up work. There is a trust being broken between the State and families. Let that not be forgotten.

The Department's review in 2024 recognised many of the problems, such as the removal of the nearest school rule for routes, reducing distance thresholds and expanding the scheme to tens of thousands of children. As Deputies already mentioned, there are a lot of pilots. We have said several times in this Chamber that we need to get over the use of pilots for everything in this country. Other countries do things very well. We do not have to reinvent the wheel and do a pilot. Let us look at what other countries do well and take that opportunity.

Regarding climate targets, there must be a 51% cut in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. School transport has the potential to make a real contribution to this by reducing the number of children driven to school in private cars. Bus Éireann has committed to making half of its fleet zero emissions by 2030. However, with 94% of the school transport with private contractors, they do not have the same requirements and that will slow things up.

If the Government is serious about inclusion and if we are serious about equal access to education, then school transport cannot be treated as an afterthought. It must be seen as an essential infrastructure like classrooms, teachers and SNAs. It means that the routes are secured well in advance. It means dedicated provision for children with special educational needs. It means planning for sustainability, not simply reacting to problems.

Perhaps the question should be asked of the Department. The Department of Education and Youth's expertise is in education and youth work. Would school transport be a better fit under the Department of Transport as it is the expert for that? It seems that it is such a stretch for the Department of education and it is another layer of difficulty that perhaps that needs to be considered.

I do not have all of the answers but I have plenty of questions. I know my colleagues also have the same.

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