Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern. As three of the four matters selected for the Adjournment were related to education, it is disappointing that none of the Ministers from the relevant Department is here. It takes away from the spontaneity. I wish to put forward a case, but the Minister of State present has no connection with the Department of Education and Science, and he will read a script that was written before any case was made. That undermines the importance for individual Members of putting forward a case.

I wish to outline a very important case to the House. It is the ongoing saga of the denial of transport to schools in Wexford for pupils in the Blackwater area of County Wexford. I last raised this matter on the Adjournment in January. I raised it by way of parliamentary question this week. It is a significant bone of contention in Wexford, where pupils with a legitimate expectation for transportation to the school that traditionally serviced the pupils and children of Blackwater are being denied that service.

A new and most serious issue has arisen. There is now more than one map of County Wexford catchment boundaries for schools. The original map used to be on the wall of the transport liaison officer, and it was pointed out to all Wexford Deputies at the outset of this controversy. That is no longer regarded as the official catchment boundary map. The so-called official catchment boundary map is now published on the VEC website.

Unfortunately, the official catchment boundary map is made up of a number of maps, snapshots of parts of the county that do not fit together. These snapshots overlap. Some areas are in two different catchment boundaries. I believe this anomaly was shown to the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, at a meeting with local Fianna Fáil cumann members from the Blackwater area. They reported that she was at least surprised, and that she undertook to have the matter reviewed.

The issue was also addressed at a meeting of Wexford Deputies. Four of the five attended, and the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Browne, was unavailable. I know he supports the unanimous conclusion of that meeting. The meeting on 15 September was attended by myself, along with Deputies Tony Dempsey, Kehoe, Twomey and the transport liaison officer for County Wexford, Ms Clare McMahon.

We accepted, across the political divide, with the transport liaison officer, that there was an anomaly. A statement was agreed in all our names. It reads:

The existing catchment maps available to the transport liaison officer in County Wexford are inadequate and need clarification. We call on the Minister for Education and Science to appoint a senior inspector as a matter of urgency to review the sub-county maps that now exist and certify the full county map setting out the catchment boundaries of each post-primary school in County Wexford. Thirdly, we ask that the inspector take such submissions from interested groups before finalising this process.

Unfortunately, in a written reply to me yesterday, the Minister for Education and Science refused to review the current, inadequate maps. She leaves the transport liaison officer in a totally invidious position. How can she determine eligibility from inadequate maps? There will be legal action on this matter and there will also be certain political action on it. I call on the Minister of State to go back to his colleagues in the Department of Education and Science as a matter of urgency and point out to them the degree of anger and frustration that has built up, not only in Blackwater, because this will have resonances across the county. He should ask that the unanimous call from the Deputies of County Wexford and the transport liaison officer, that an inspector reinvestigate the catchment boundaries, be investigated as a matter of urgency. That process should be put in place at once.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I am afraid that I can only give the Deputy the script that is here.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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That is what I am afraid of.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I was landed with this at the last moment but perhaps it will clarify the matter. Under the terms of the Department of Education and Science school transport scheme a pupil is eligible for transport if he or she resides 4.8 km or more from his or her local post-primary education centre, that is, the centre serving the catchment area in which he or she lives. The scheme is not designed to facilitate parents who choose to send their children to a post-primary centre outside the catchment in which they reside. However, children who are fully eligible for transport to the post-primary centre in the catchment in which they reside may apply for transport on a concessionary basis to a post-primary centre outside their own catchment area, otherwise known as catchment boundary transport. These children can only be facilitated if spare seats are available on the bus after all other eligible children travelling——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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This has nothing to do with the maps or the issue I have raised.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will move on to what I hope may be the relevant point.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Please do so.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Catchment boundaries have provided and continue to provide a useful tool in facilitating the orderly planning of school provision and accommodation needs and the operation of the national school transport service. Last year, a problem arose regarding a catchment boundary line on a map retained in the office of the transport liaison officer for County Wexford. The matter concerned was addressed and acted upon promptly. The Department of Education and Science has been assured by the transport liaison officer that she is satisfied that the catchment boundary maps displayed on the Wexford VEC website are the same as the Department's maps and those utilised by Bus Éireann.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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They do not add up, that is the problem. They are both wrong.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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In his question, the Deputy seems to suggest that the transport liaison officer for County Wexford, who administers the post-primary school transport scheme on behalf of the Department, is a party to a recommendation to appoint a senior inspector to review and certify the school transport catchment boundary areas in County Wexford. The transport liaison officer has confirmed to the Department of Education and Science that she is not a party to such a recommendation.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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She attended the meeting and agreed the statement I have just read out. She might have been bullied afterwards, but that was the fact on 15 September.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I am only trying to pick out what I think might seem to be the relevant points.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Will the Minister of State go back and ask the Department to look at it again?

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I certainly will.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State.