James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity to raise this important matter, namely, the need for the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Mary Coughlan, to explain why a child, who heretofore has travelled the six miles to her school on a school bus which passes her gate, as did both her older siblings, has been told to move to a new school over 15 miles away. Her father attended the same school 35 years ago using this same bus service, which has passed their gate for 40 years.

The child concerned is expected to up-root from her current school, St. John's Church of Ireland national school, travel 4.9 miles by car to Keenagh, County Longford, and then a further 12 miles to Tashinny national school, by school bus. This is bureaucracy and red tape gone mad. In case the import of the farcical letter this child's parents received from the school transport section of the Department has failed to resonate with the Minister of State, the child concerned is being asked to travel more than 15 miles each way to a new school she did not ask to attend. Her parents made no request for a transfer. Why should they do so? St. John's has become a family institution with which they are extremely satisfied.

This is farcical when one considers that the child is extremely happy in her current situation, in a school she likes, with her friends around her, taking a journey to school of six miles as opposed to 15, in a bus that picks her up at her gate in the morning and drops her back in the evening. On top of this her mother will have to drive her to the bus, which will impact adversely on the mother's time and inconvenience her without anyone having asked her if this would be possible. It is not possible as the mother works from home and needs to be available from 8.30 a.m. To add to the farce, the child's younger brother is due to start school in September at St. John's in Longford. No letter has been issued in regard to him or his situation. This is akin to taking a hammer to crack a nut - the only problem being that nobody knows what kind of nut it is.

Apart from wanting the Minister of State's commitment to reverse this extraordinary decision, I want to know why it was made in the first place. As with all current, arbitrary heartless Government decisions one looks for the cost-cutting potential saving of the action. In this case it is hard to find one. A journey of 15 miles is more fuel intensive than one of six miles - no saving there. The cost in terms of human displacement and upset is certainly present but that is of little regard to the Government. One looks then to the next possible scenario, namely, school amalgamation. In this case that would be impossible from a logistics point of view but given the letter under discussion one can see that anything is possible in the education sector.

There is another area I do not want to get into but must mention because of the recent targeting by Government of minority schools in terms of funding and staffing levels. Does the fact that these are Church of Ireland schools have any bearing on the matter? I sincerely hope it does not and pay the Minister, Deputy Coughlan, the compliment of assuming this is not the case.

This family lives in the parish of Longford, not the Ardagh group of parishes, and St. John's is their parish school. Although it is difficult to have to ask a child to take a bus six miles to school, travelling distances is a fact of rural life. By any standards, however, asking this child and also perhaps her very young brother to travel 15 miles is excessive. The child in question is about to enter fifth class and it is not in her best interest to ask her parents to move her to a new school. It might be extremely detrimental to her current and future educational development as she is dyslexic, has only just found her feet in her current school and gained in confidence due to the supports she is being given.

I am sure that, true to form, the Minister will have an explanation for me but whether it will remove the element of farce remains to be seen. I fear, based on previous experience that it may greatly enhance it. I ask the Minister to allow common sense to prevail. It is very important that this child be facilitated in her home parish, as all her siblings were and that the same facility be afforded her brother who is due to start school in September. I do not know what kind of mix-up or mess in the Department's school transport section has allowed such a situation to occur.

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for lifelong learning, Deputy Seán Haughey. I thank Deputy Bannon for raising this matter.

Before I address the issue of the transport for this particular child, I will give Members an outline of the extent of the school transport service. School transport is a very significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on the Department's behalf and covering over 82 million kilometres annually. In the region of 125,000 children, including more than 8,000 children with special needs, are transported in over 3,800 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. This includes over 9,000 schoolchildren who travel on scheduled bus and rail services, including those of licensed private operators.

Under the terms of the primary school transport scheme pupils are eligible for free transport if they reside 3.2 km or more from, and are attending, their nearest national school as determined by the Department. Where a school is closed and amalgamated with another, children for whom the closed school would have been their nearest had it remained open, are eligible for free transport to the school of amalgamation. Pupils may avail of transport to a school other than the amalgamated school on a concessionary basis. Such an arrangement would be subject to a number of conditions as follows: the payment of an annual charge which is currently €200; spare seats being available on the service; the agreement of the school of amalgamation being obtained; and no additional State costs being incurred by way of re-routing the service.

In regard to the case outlined by the Deputy, Bus Éireann has been requested to submit a report on the matter. On receipt of this report the Department will be in a position to investigate the matter more fully and issue a reply directly to the Deputy. I again thank the Deputy for raising this matter.