Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

It is a cyclical problem at this time of year. From about July onwards, TDs' offices are bombarded with problems regarding school transport. I am sure my situation is no different from the situations of the rest of the Members in this House.

There are a number of problems arising with the schemes. One of the main problems is that you cannot get talking to a human being in Bus Éireann. There is an automated system and that is fine. When that works, it generally works well. The problem is that, when there is an issue that arises, the computer cannot make a change and sometimes you need to talk to a person. While it may be an Oireachtas email, that does not do it; the same reply keeps bouncing back the whole time. Some of the problems that arise regard routes being changed, and people having to go two miles before they actually get to the pick-up point. We had this in the Jamestown-Ballybrittas area. There needs to be human contact.

Other problems that arise with the scheme are in relation to the catchment areas.

I understand there has to be a catchment area. However, the village of Borris-in-Ossory is split into two halves. It is a small village of 500 or 600 people. The main street is split in half. There is a gap of 50 yards where the children in one household go to St. Fergal's in Rathdowney while the children in a house 50 yards up the road go to Roscrea, despite the fact that they originally went to the same school. There is no logic to that. There needs to be a level of flexibility. I understand that there can only be so much flexibility - I am not arguing for absolute flexibility - but this needs to be addressed.

The other issue I want to raise is in the context of the programme for Government. I read the review and it shows there will be an expansion of about 100,000 pupils. I welcome that but there will not be the drivers. I have raised this over and over again. There are over-70s who are sitting at home today but who could be driving buses. It is generally not economically viable for under-65s to do it because it is a three-hour a day job. However, it suits somebody on a pension. We cannot have people driving buses who have a dickey heart or dodgy eyesight. I understand all of that; that is no problem. I have a HGV licence and I must have a medical test every so many years for that. It is right that I should do that in order to keep the HGV licence. We have a situation where over-70s cannot drive a child in a taxi as part of the scheme for Bus Éireann or have ten children in a minibus, yet many of them are driving coaches. I know them. Friends of mine are driving coaches with 50, 60 or 70 passengers on board during the day but they cannot drive the school bus. They are 71 or 72 years of age. The limit needs to be extended to 75. I would make that proposal to the Minister of State. I have raised this with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Transport and now I am raising it with the Minister of State. They all seem to agree that this needs to change. I spoke to the Minister of State, Seán Canney, about it outside the Dáil just before recess. I do not want to misrepresent him, but he indicated to me that there was a problem with Bus Éireann. Bus Éireann is putting the brakes on this. This needs to be resolved. This is a State contractor getting taxpayers' money. I know it needs safe drivers, but we do not have the drivers to cover the scheme. Bus operators are telling me - I am sure it is happening across the country - that they cannot get the drivers. We need to sort this out and have a strict medical test for over-70s. If they pass the test, they are fit to drive. We cannot continue to ignore this problem. I implore the Minister of State, as someone in the Department of education, and the officials here today to come back with an answer on this. This cannot be put off on the never-never. The Government can put it on paper that it will expand the scheme, but it will never be able to because it will not have the operators and drivers. I am saying this to be helpful.

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