Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue which is of considerable importance not only to two families in my constituency, but to young adults in general who may have a disability. It concerns the need for the Department of Education and Skills to show flexibility in the use of transportation for young adults from Cavan who are attending Midway Services in County Meath, bearing in mind paragraph 4.13 on page 66 of the Value for Money and Policy Review of Disability Services in Ireland which states: "Service providers should examine the possibility of sharing transport resources on a cost neutral basis with other local service providers/community groups taking into account the recent announcement of plans for the Department of Transport to integrate local transport services."

Recently I was contacted by two families in Cavan, both of whom have an 18 year old daughter with an intellectual disability. Both recently turned 18 years of age, graduated from St. Ultan's secondary school in Navan and are attending Midway Services, also in Navan, County Meath. While attending St. Ultan's secondary school, both availed of transport on a Bus Éireann school bus from their homes to school. The Department of Education and Skills has deemed both ineligible to avail of the service as they are 18 years of age and deemed to be adults and no longer in mainstream education.

It is the intention of the two families that the two young women will use public transportation on their own in the short term but the parents and support workers at Midway Services agree it will be some time before they will be able to travel unaccompanied. This proposal is a temporary solution only. In the interim, the hope is that both could continue to travel to Midway Services on the Bus Éireann school bus. Both of them used this bus service previously when they attended St. Ultan's secondary school until May 2012 before turning 18.

The bus travels past their houses every day with empty seats. I understand there may be some concerns around child protection given that they are 18 years of age. As the bus driver is an adult and there is an adult escort on the bus, the two young women are not deemed by professionals to be threatening to children, quite the contrary. As they know the children on the bus, having previously travelled on it, and are from the community, this makes no sense and is grossly insulting. It was a practice in the past to do this. On one previous occasion in my constituency a young woman in a similar situation was allowed to avail of the school transport scheme from her home to an adult day service in County Meath. As a goodwill gesture, the Department and the Health Service Executive allowed this to take place. The sharing of services took place in the good days in the times of plenty, but in times of economic restriction and constraint it is proposed to do the opposite and to pile up the costs.

The parents of one of those two young women have other young children, are both working out of economic necessity and are not in a position to drive the children. The parents of the other young woman are elderly. The mother is awaiting hospitalisation for serious issues and they are not in a position to take the children to Midway Services. It defies logic that a bus travels past their houses which they would have used a few months ago, that the seats are available and that it is only proposed to allow them travel as a interim solution. It defies all natural justice and is discriminatory, wrong and bizarre.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

School transport is a very significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on the Department's behalf and covering over 82 million kilometres annually. Approximately 114,000 children, including more than 8,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in the last school year on a daily basis to schools throughout the country. This network involves approximately 4,000 vehicles covering over 82 million kilometres annually.

A primary objective of the school transport scheme is to support the 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 and to date this has been the sole focus of that scheme. While I recognise the need for flexibility in the use of transportation, this is a complex matter and a number of critical factors must be borne in mind. In the first instance, school transport vehicles are routed and timetabled to coincide with school opening and closing times and existing contract arrangements with private sector providers are framed along these lines. In this context, it is significant that some 85% of school transport provision is now provided by private sector operators on foot of contracts with Bus Éireann. Bus Éireann is operating a process of rolling out five year contracts to maximise value for money and security of provision.

A further significant factor to be considered in the integration of school transport services is child protection. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that the opening up of school transport services to adults would have serious risks if it were to be contemplated. My colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Alan Kelly, and I are together looking closely at the issue of integrated rural transport provision and in that context the National Transport Authority has assumed a role in this area. I understand that proposals are being developed by a working group involving representatives of my Department and the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Social Protection and the Environment, Community and Local Government, Bus Éireann, the Health Service Executive and others. I consider this is the most appropriate way of advancing this agenda and dealing with the type of issues I have outlined.

Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I appreciate he is working on the local brief he received. I appeal to him to revisit a couple of issues. The issue of timing does not arise because the professional personnel at Midway Services, where the young adults who have an intellectual disability attend, will collect them from the bus. The local bus driver and helpers have no issue. Therefore, that is a non issue. I appreciate the Minister received the briefing and did not write it. The young adults in question are very benign people who have a good profile and the professionals who work with them are convinced that, contrary to being a threat to children, they are great friends of the local children and travelled previously with them until they reached the age of 18 years. Only a couple of months ago they travelled on the same bus with the same young people from their community and now they are barred from travelling on the bus.

While I appreciate the Minister of State's response, I appeal that common sense, natural justice, Christianity and ordinary human values should apply here. The Minister of State should revisit the brief, go to the people who wrote the script and say, "Sad, but we are about people and this is reality".

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The case the Deputy raised has prompted the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, and I to look closely at the suggestion the Deputy is making. We have established a working group between my Department, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and the HSE to investigate how we can best use our scarce resources for transport in all rural areas. This would encompass school transport, rural transport and patient transport. Although we are early in that process, significant possible savings have been identified as well as a possible enhancement of the service available to people in rural areas.

The Deputy is suggesting an interim, piecemeal and ad hoc change to our school transport system, which would not be the wisest approach. We need to consider the matter in an integrated fashion. If we are to amend the school transport and rural transport systems, it needs to be done in a careful and considered manner given that it is a very complex operation, transporting 114,000 children to and from school each day. The Deputy's concerns and suggestions to amalgamate transport for people in rural areas will be considered as we continue along the process of hopefully providing school transport and rural transport systems that best serve the needs of people in rural areas.

Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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On a point of information, this is a school bus on the M3, the motorway to Dublin. While I really welcome the rural transport initiative, it would not apply in this case.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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We are investigating all possibilities for integrating and amalgamating transport. It would include school transport for the young people to whom the Deputy has referred. Distinct possibilities are opening up in the areas he suggests, but it needs to be done in a considered and careful way across the school transport system, rather than on an ad hoc basis.