Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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28. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the school transport review. [2013/17]

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to raise again the issue of school transport and the current review issued just before Christmas. Could the Minister of State outline his response to the review?

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy. As she knows, the programme for Government committed to a review of the concessionary charges and rules element of the school transport scheme. It was commenced in June 2016 and published in December of that year. As part of the review process, I established an Oireachtas cross-party working group, of which the Deputy was a member, to feed into it. That group met to discuss school transport issues. The review published in December made recommendations on both the charges and the rules element of concessionary school transport.

As outlined in the review, there have been a number of reports on the school transport scheme over the years, and the current scheme is based on a detailed value-for-money review published in 2011. This is very important. I have said this on many I was dealing with a full review published in 2011. Therefore, the current review did not deal with the range of issues dealt with in the 2011 report. It could not because the 2011 review was a full value-for-money review.

With regard to the charges for concessionary school transport, the recommended course of action was to continue with the current position whereby charges remain in place for those in receipt of concessionary places. I agree with this recommendation on the basis that those applying for concessionary transport are making a conscious decision to do so and understand the implications of this choice at the time of application. That is made quite clear to applicants.

The report also recommended that the number of concessionary places be reduced in line with the rules introduced in 2012 on a phased basis. Previous plans to advance this option were put on hold pending the completion of the review. Upon consideration of the review and discussions with the cross-party working group, however, I decided there should be no planned programme of downsizing in the coming years, except in line with normal operational decisions within the current scheme.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for that response but I am very disappointed with it. I was a member of the cross-party group. I expressed very clearly to the Minister of State the concerns of rural communities.

It is clear that this issue does not arise in the Minister of State's constituency. If it did, he might be more active on it. What is occurring is not good enough. I expressed my concerns. The cross-party review group did not even have an agenda. At the meeting, I expressed very strongly the views of many people across this country, not just in Offaly. It is not good enough that 6,882 children were affected by cuts to concessionary transport. The Minister of State made a commitment that no child would lose his or her seat on a school bus.

We have communities that are disadvantaged. In one case in Donegal, a bus is running across a mountain, leading to health and safety issues. This is as a result of the review and the Minister of State's inaction on the issue. I call on him to examine the matter. Clearly, it does not concern his constituency, but it concerns thousands of children across the country.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The Deputy was out of order to discuss my constituency. I happen to be the Minister of State for the whole of the country, not just for Waterford, Cork or Donegal constituencies.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State is not showing that through his inaction.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I take representations from every Member, including many from the Deputy's party-----

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State did not.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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-----who have been successful in their applications to me.

People are unclear regarding concessionary transport. The problem is that, although it has been dramatically increased in recent years to approximately 25,000 people, the scheme is still based on the amount of money that is made available to my Department. I make this point consistently - I am not in a position, nor would I want to be, to stop any child from being transported anywhere. Some 115,000 children, including 10,000 with special needs, are transported everyday and 99% of families are happy with the scheme. There are difficulties, and I am doing my best to deal with them.

If someone, or Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin combined, demanded a further €20 million, €30 million or €40 million to be invested in the scheme, that would be fine and I will be able to deal with all of it and ensure another review-----

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. He will have a further opportunity to respond.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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-----to allow everyone to get school transport, but that is not the case as it is.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I want to stick rigidly to the times.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State, but I am disappointed by his response. He has evaded the issue again. I sent a comprehensive submission to the Minister of State on this issue but received no feedback. I brought up a group of parents who told the Minister of State about how it had been impacting on their lives. It is a further attack on rural communities and evidence that the Minister of State is not doing his job. He is the one who came to the Chamber and made the commitment that no child in receipt of a concessionary ticket would lose a seat on school buses, yet thousands have.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The Deputy is completely wrong. I made a clear commitment that any eligible child who was entitled to school transport would get it. There are no children who are eligible for school transport who do not get it. The concessionary scheme was set up to deal with eligible children. If places on buses became available because eligible children could not fill them, children in the concessionary scheme could have them. The Department is, to the best of its ability, transporting 25,000 children under the concessionary scheme who would otherwise not be entitled to school transport.

Of course there are faults in the scheme, but the Deputy should remember that I am just seven months in this job, the issue is a major one that affects many people and I am trying to deal with it. Everyone who has needed to meet me has done so. Indeed, many Members of the Deputy's party have met me. Sometimes, we were able to deal successfully with some of the issues that they raised. As Minister of State, however, I am bound by rules, regulations, legislation and financial wherewithal. To the best of my ability, I try to ensure that no children - concessionary or eligible - lose their positions on school transport.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Thousands have.