Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, is present because, this time last year, he attended a meeting in the Listowel Arms Hotel hosted by the Minister, Deputy Deenihan. There were 500 or 600 people present that night and their anger as a consequence of the post-primary school transport system in the north Kerry area was evident. I can tell the Minister of State it is an awful lot worse now than it was then. Those of us who were public representatives were able to work with Bus Éireann in a constructive way to facilitate the requirements of many of those who had concerns at that time.

I want to bring the current situation to the Minister of State's attention. There is currently a 53-seat and a 49-seat bus service operating in Ardfert, Ballyheigue and Abbeydorney and servicing the Causeway Comprehensive School. That service is operating at capacity and, while an extra 18 people from the Ardfert-Abbeydorney area need transport to the school for the coming year, there are no seats available for them. This situation is replicated in the Ashdee, Tarbert and Ballybunion areas, and Kilflynn and every other village throughout north Kerry is experiencing similar circumstances.

Students from Ardfert and Abbeydorney are consistently unable to gain entry to the nearest school, which is in Tralee, because the school admission policy favours students from the local feeder schools in Tralee, whose capacity is ever-increasing. Yet, the Causeway area would be a feeder area for Ardfert, Ballyheigue, Abbeydorney and other villages. The outcome of all of this is that, in one area, there are 18 students who have no seat and cannot get on the bus, whereas their brothers and sisters are currently using that bus to travel to Causeway Comprehensive School. There is a similar situation in Ashdee, where nine students want to get on the bus but there are only three seats available, although they have brothers and sisters travelling to Tarbert or Ballybunion. As they cannot get on the bus, they are compelled to try to get into schools in towns such as Listowel or Tralee.

Something needs to be done. I have met Bus Éireann representatives and will meet them again on Monday. It is an injustice to divide families when the parents went to these schools previously and when brothers and sisters must go to a different school. It is ridiculous. I hope the Minister of State will give this consideration and that he will be able to find a way to resolve the matter.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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While I acknowledge savings have to be made in regard to school transport, the implementation on the ground of some of the changes is madness. Children starting primary school and requiring transport must now go to what is the nearest school but, in many cases, problems are being caused due to distance rules which might involve just 100 m. What savings can be made from 100 m? As Deputy Ferris said, families are being split up, with members of the one family being forced to go to different schools.

I know the Minister of State is very aware of this and is making efforts to get it sorted out. However, the situation will come to a head in August and September. There are several examples in Mayo. In Kilkelly, some 200 m in the difference means a bus goes to one school but no bus goes to the other school, to which first year students are being asked to go. It is not as if there is a choice between the two because a tradition has built up in one direction. In Knock, the bus passes the door of a child who is being denied access to it, again because of this distance rule. In Ballyboy, a tradition that has built up over 40 years has been broken. Where pupils are now in a different diocese, they will be forced to travel in a different direction from their natural shopping hinterland, sporting clubs and so on. The same happens between Baal and Ballinrobe where the distance involved is 100 m.

If this goes ahead next September one member of a family will be collected at 8.10 a.m. and dropped off at 4.10 p.m. as is the case at present but their young sister will be picked up at 7.30 a.m. and dropped off at 4.30 p.m. When this works through the system it will have major implications for schools that received investment for new and additional buildings in recent years. There is no way that savings can be made from some of these decisions that are due to be implemented.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank both Deputies for raising this matter. As they are both aware, school transport is a very significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on the Department's behalf and covering over 82 million km annually. Approximately 113,000 children, including more than 8,000 children with special needs, are transported in approximately 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

The Deputies are referring to the changes regarding school transport eligibility for children attending post-primary schools, which take effect from the beginning of the next school year. At the outset I want to explain that the main objective of the Department's school transport scheme is to support the safe transport to and from school of children who would have difficulty travelling, for reasons of distance, to their nearest school if transport is not supported.

The current system for determining eligibility for school transport at post-primary level has been in place for over 40 years. In 1966, when the Government announced the introduction of free post-primary education, the country was divided for planning purposes into geographic districts which we have now come to know as catchment areas, each with several primary schools feeding into a post-primary centre with one or more post-primary schools.

Post-primary pupils are eligible for transport if they reside 4.8 km or more from their local post-primary education centre, that is, the centre serving the catchment area in which they live. The definition of school transport catchment boundaries has been the cause of many submissions and representations to the Department over the years. It is widely considered by many that the current catchment boundary areas do not reflect changed demographics.

Changes in the post primary school transport scheme were announced in budget 2011. One of the changes which will take effect from this September means that the use of the catchment area system as a means of determining eligibility will cease for all pupils newly entering a post-primary school. From this date, school transport eligibility for all new pupils entering a post-primary school will be determined by reference to the distance they reside from their nearest post-primary education centre having regard to ethos and language. This eligibility criterion will be applied equitably on a national basis.

In general, existing eligible children, including those who are not attending their nearest post-primary centre and who meet the distance criterion of 4.8 km, will retain their transport eligibility for the duration of their post-primary education cycle provided there is no change to their current circumstances. Siblings of these children and other children who are not attending their nearest school may apply for school transport on a concessionary basis only in accordance with the terms of the post primary school transport scheme.

Regarding the planning of school infrastructure, the general approach of the Department is to plan on the basis of pupils attending at their nearest primary schools and that those primary schools then feed into attendance at the nearest post-primary schools or the nearest post-primary centre generally. The changes announced in post-primary school transport services are in line with this approach and ultimately will result in a more efficient and cost effective scheme.

While it is the prerogative of parents to send their children to the school of their choice, eligibility for school transport is to the nearest school, having regard for ethos and language.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister spoke about a feeder system but there is very little difference in the distance between Ardfert and Abbeydorney, for example, and Causeway Comprehensive School. It is almost impossible to get into some of the post-primary schools in Tralee yet there is ample room in Causeway. It is difficult to comprehend that in so far as people are being forced to go to a school that is bursting at the seams, yet the school of their choice, which their brothers and sisters might attend, does not qualify for primary school transport. There are 18 people in one area waiting to get into Causeway and there is a 53 seat bus coming from that area to the Tralee school that is not full. Some imagination is needed in that respect. Changing the size of the bus could make a huge difference but that requires political will, and I do not see that.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Would the Minister accept that there will be implications for the schools and numbers in future years? This is being done to achieve savings but over the years Bus Éireann's accounts have shown that it is costing more to transport fewer children. The cost in 2009 was €1,266 per student. In 2010 it cost €1,392 per student and in 2011 the cost was €1,526 per student. There has been a 20% drop in the number of students availing of Bus Éireann transport but the cost has increased. I cannot understand these changes. Families are being split up and the students' sense of place in terms of where they have always gone is being discommoded. This change will not turn around the transport costs. It does not make sense.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I want to emphasise that in order to allow parents ample time to consider all their school options a 20 month gap was allowed between the announcement of this measure and the time when parents needed to apply for school transport for the coming school year. Those changes were posted on the Department's website in October 2011 and the updated scheme was made available on 1 February this year. I should add that the Department contacted post-primary schools directly on two occasions in addition to the relevant education partners formally advising them of the changes.

Even in times of plenty one could never argue an economic case for transporting children other than to the school that is nearest to where they live. Deputy Ferris may say that parents wish for their children to attend the school of their choice - all of us as parents wish that - but it is not possible, and never would be possible, to facilitate that choice by providing transport to the school of choice for every child in the country.

The transport scheme is available to underpin the school system, particularly across rural Ireland, but it was not designed to bring every child to the school of their choice. That is not what the system was about.

Deputy Ferris pointed out that when we have the radii of two schools intermeshing with one another, situations will arise where a child who lives in one location is not entitled to transport to a particular centre while a child who lives 100 metres away is entitled to transport. That will happen everywhere where those two radii meet.

Deputy O'Mahony stated that there may be additional costs associated with perhaps providing new classrooms. Research carried out by Bus Éireann would indicate that 95% of pupils are already attending their nearest centre and therefore it is unlikely to result in significant capital costs involved in building new classrooms. Second, if it is, that would be a once-off capital cost associated with that development whereas the savings accruing from a more efficient and cost effective school transport system will accrue to us year after year.

On the Deputy's comment about the cost of school transport, he is correct in pointing out that the cost per pupil has risen exponentially in recent years but that is because it includes 8,000 children with special needs who, because of their special needs and the special transport that needs to be provided for them, incur a far greater cost. Some 8,000 children with special needs are being transported every day whereas a very short time ago very little of that was happening. During the transitionary phase and while we allow the current cohort of students to work their way through the system, some anomalous situations will occur. That is unavoidable, but it is a transitionary phase and, once complete, we will have a more efficient and cost-effective school transport system in place that will be fair, equitable and will be applied equitably throughout the country.