Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. We have a new school year and a new Minister in place, but we have had the same old school transport chaos. In my constituency office, it is just part of what we do in the latter part of every August and in September. We deal with families who are absolutely distraught because their entire back to school plans have been thrown up in the air because of a last-minute email from Bus Éireann telling them the school bus place that was paid for and booked back in April in most instances is not actually in place. It is not good enough and the Minister of State’s Department needs to be much firmer with Bus Éireann on the service and planning that goes into providing this transport. Whoever secures such an important contract as our school bus routes has a responsibility to ensure the requisite number of buses, the right sizes of buses and the right number of drivers are in place long before the school year commences.

There is a number of distinct issues in terms of the dysfunction that affects these services. It is a minority of them but when it affects your family it is all that is important. The first is obviously the students who are eligible for school transport, have applied on time and paid on time only to find the bus is not in place. There should be a zero tolerance approach to situations like that. I would be saying to Bus Éireann and operators if they secure the contract that they just have to do that and we should be really robust. Then there is the issue of so-called concessionary tickets. Let us call a spade a spade; concessionary ticket holders are students who need a school bus place and whether they get it is a matter, essentially, of somebody’s generosity. This is despite the fact the school transport review, which was delayed for virtually two years, set very clear recommendations on reducing the distance for which students would be eligible. Some little bit of flexibility on the nearest school principle would ensure people are able to secure transport for their children. It should be an absolute principle and a goal of this House that every child who needs a school bus should get a seat on that bus.

The irony is not lost on people in rural constituencies like my own that we spend so much time lecturing – I will use that term – people about using their car that we have families in counties like Monaghan who are forced to put their children into their car every morning and drive behind the school bus to the exact same place because they have been denied a place on that bus. The other issue that needs to be addressed is the length of time and the bureaucracy when it comes to school bus routes that need to be changed due primarily to demographic changes like new children in areas or for road safety reasons. I am dealing with a number of cases in parishes neighbouring my own where children from one road, which is a very rural, local road, all have to track down to a much busier regional road in the dark hours of the morning. We are engaging with Bus Éireann to try to get that rerouted or at least to get some mechanism to accommodate those children. The fear I have is we might ultimately be successful but it might be next year. As elected representatives, there is always a fear when somebody brings road safety concerns to our attention. We should have a mechanism through which those concerns can be addressed as quickly as possible. The difficulties are compounded by the fact it is often very difficult for us as elected representatives, never mind the families concerned, to get responses from Bus Éireann. It is quite clear there are not enough support staff in the company to respond to queries from the public and elected representatives. I am sure it is a very stressful job for those individuals who have to deal with it.

In my last five seconds I make an appeal that has been made several times today, which is that we deal with the issue of drivers over the age of 70 who are medically fit to drive buses. They want to drive school buses and they should be permitted to do so.

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