Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

Enrolment in our school bus system has become an annual crisis, involving huge stress and uncertainty for many families. It is a stand-out example of the Government's inability or unwillingness to get the basics right for families. What should be a straightforward service has become an epic fiasco of poor, disjointed planning and crude restrictions, with so much unnecessary worry and hassle for those families caught up in it.

Across Cork East, the frustration is acute. From Youghal to Cobh to Mitchelstown, I have been inundated with calls and emails from families who are at the end of their tethers trying to access school bus places for their children. The system is both spectacularly haphazard and mercilessly rigid. No grace is shown to families who are unfamiliar with the system or who missed the deadline for applications and are now left stranded. This will disproportionately impact families in disadvantaged social circumstances. I am thinking in particular of two children I know of in Cloyne who were refused places due to late applications. Their parents have no access to a car. These children will now have to take the unreliable public bus home at 6.15 p.m., which will be particularly punitive during winter. Some other examples of the fallout from the system include a family based in Clonmult who were allocated a route that is too far from their home to be a feasible option. Yet, a school bus on a route that has not been offered to them passes directly by their home.

I am also advocating for an autistic, visually impaired child who has been offered a special school placement on the other side of Midleton from where they live but who has not been allocated transport to get to that school. I am representing two children in Leamlara who live closer to Carrigtwohill than Midleton. They have been assigned concessionary status for the school bus, which means have been put to the back of the queue and are not guaranteed places. This happened on the basis they live closer to Carrigtwohill and have chosen St. Colman's in Midleton for their secondary education. However, St. Colman's is their nearest DEIS school, yet that has not being taken into account.

This is an absurd state of affairs. These children have been granted placement in a school on the basis of disadvantage yet are being excluded from accessing transport to that school. It is not rocket science to design a school bus system that is joined-up, meets the needs of all students within reason and has some degree of flexibility and humanity built into it for families who do not have their applications in on time because they are new to the system or find themselves in difficult social circumstances. The Department really needs to get a grip on this issue.

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