Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State and the Department for the work they are doing in this area. The numbers availing of school transport have increased to 172,000 this year from 149,000 in 2022-2023. The number for people with special educational needs has gone from 18,000 to 21,500. It is not easy to increase services like that because, as a lot of speakers mentioned, there is demand for the vehicles and for the drivers. That is a challenge and how we deal with it into future is something we need to look at very carefully.

It is important we acknowledge the work done by the Department, school management, Bus Éireann, the contractors employed, the drivers and the parents who all co-operate in delivering this service. The Minister was talking about the roll out of the pilot scheme. My colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, referred to Rahan. Very much so over the last two years parents there have been looking for school transport because it is a difficult road to travel. There is a large number of cars and it is a difficult area to manoeuvre. I am delighted to hear progress is being made on this. I know the Minister is doing everything possible in dealing with that issue in relation to Rahan. It is a good pilot project to take on. There are huge benefits if it is put into place. Bus Éireann has been working with the school, the board of management and with the Department on bringing Rahan in as a pilot project.

In the constituency I serve, we have major challenges at times - for instance, getting bus services in the upper Glanmire area, and to Carrignavar. There are a lot of people in the Glenville area who want to go to Fermoy and people in the Whitechurch area who want to go to Blarney. There are all sorts of challenges in different areas. In fairness, in dealing with those, it is difficult to meet all the needs and the challenges, but I do think every effort is being made to do that. The only way of really dealing with it is to try to increase the level of transport available, and that we work that much harder over the next two to three years to try to make sure we meet the targets we have set.

One of the problems is discretionary seats, in particular where families have them for two years and then find in year three, four or five the seat is no longer available. I know one family where one of the parents was going through cancer treatment and three of their children who had concessionary seats for the last number of years suddenly lost them. This posed huge challenges for the family. One member of the family was trying to hold down a job while another family member was in healthcare. At times no allowance is made for that. One is going into a lottery system. We need to look at that more carefully. Where a concessionary ticket is granted, we must do everything possible to ensure it is continued because families work around that. They believe it will continue for the number of years the child is going to that school.

Another big issue is around the time decisions are made. If that could be brought forward to an earlier date, it would be extremely beneficial to families as it would allow them to plan. If they had concessionary tickets and for some reason were no longer able to get them, they could plan for it. Now families are finding out at a very late stage and they are having to make alternative plans.

It is important we progress the pilot schemes but also make sure the reports are available at an early stage to see how they can be further expanded. We have made a lot of progress over the past number of years. It is important we continue with that, that we continue to make sure our children get to school safely, that we reduce the number of motor vehicles and that we use buses rather having than a huge number of cars arriving outside the school at the one time.

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