Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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33. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reverse a decision regarding school transport whereby children living in Urris, County Donegal, and who attend or will be attending a school (details supplied) have been advised that their nearest school is now in Buncrana as Bus Éireann used a route over Mamore Gap when calculating the nearest school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1812/17]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister reverse decision which has meant that many children from the Urris area of Clonmady, County Donegal, have to pay for school transport in order to go to the secondary school they have always attended and which is the school nearest to them in a practical sense?

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I spoke to the Deputy on the issue briefly before he came into the Chamber. This has been a consistent and continuing issue since before my time with the previous Minister. It is an issue that has been brought to my attention by a number of Deputies.

Changes to the eligibility criteria for the Department's school transport scheme were announced in December 2010 by the then Government as part of measures contained in budget 2011 and derived from recommendations contained in the value-for-money review of the scheme. This resulted in changes for eligibility in some areas such as the area in Donegal.

Any child who had eligibility under the old rules retained this eligibility provided there was no change in their circumstances. Under the new rules children are eligible for post-primary school transport where they reside not less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by the Department or Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

Bus Éireann determines distance eligibility by measuring the shortest traversable route, which may be either pedestrian or vehicular, from the family home to the nearest education centre and it is not necessarily the route that the school bus takes. This was set in rules and regulations. Therefore, the Mamore Gap is used when determining school transport eligibility for children resident in that particular area.

The purpose of this measurement is to assess if children meet the distance eligibility criterion for school transport. In the interests of equity, this is applied on a consistent standard basis across the country irrespective of any local circumstances that may impact on travel conditions on particular routes during parts of the year.

The terms of the post-primary school transport scheme are applied equitably on a national basis.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. As we experienced in the last year since the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, came into office and under the previous Government, I am afraid the response is entirely unsatisfactory and unacceptable.

We know what the scheme is and how it is applied. I focused specifically on Urris in this parliamentary question in order to get the Minister of State to deal with the detail of the implication of how this rule is applied to real communities and real people on the ground.

I know civil servants may be saying we need black-and-white rules and that we cannot be changing things. Civil servants like black-and-white rules, but it is the job of politicians to represent the people who elect them and to ensure that the laws of this State properly cater for the public and are sensible and equitable. This is patently not sensible and a poor use of funds. By using a mountain gap that is not passable by a bus the Department is suggesting that these students should go to a school in Buncrana instead of the school they have always attended in Carndonagh. By doing so their school bus journey would be 16 miles if they were to go to Buncrana instead of the 12 miles at present.

In addition the Government would have to provide another bus to take that route which would be very expensive and would mean the students were travelling further. It is pure nonsense.

Since they are no longer regarded as eligible, in order for these students to continue to go to Carndonagh community school using the current bus that goes past their door, they have to pay the concessionary fare. That fare is €350 per student up to a maximum of €650 if there are two or more students in a family.

This specifically affects students who previously had been eligible and did not have to pay the fare. Therefore, their parents were medical card holders because if they did not have a medical card they would previously have had to pay the fare even if they were eligible. A family with two parents and two children would have to be under the income threshold of €340 per week to qualify for the medical card. That means such a family would have to use up two weeks of their income to pay for their two children to go to secondary school. How can that be equitable and fair? We cannot stand over it and we have to deal with the issue.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I will go through a few points and then make a recommendation to the Deputy. Sometimes we are asked why we do not use the bus routes to determine eligibility rather than the shortest traversable route. The bus route is designed based on the home address of the children who are eligible for school transport. Given that new children apply for transport each school year, it follows that the bus route may change to reflect the location of the homes of eligible children. People might ask why mountain passes, which may be impassable during winter months, must be measured when determining eligibility. Distance is measured using the shortest traversable route.

This means that mountain passes, pedestrian bridges, one-way streets and so forth are factors when measuring the shortest traversable routes. A variety of methods may be used to calculate this measurement, including the Geographic Information System, GIS. This allows for the equitable measuring of distances.

There are other passes in the country about which there is also an issue but this particular case is very difficult. I have read the information on it very carefully and a number of other Deputies have also raised it with me. I invite Deputy McConalogue to meet me and an official from the Department next week so that we can go through this again. I can see that some of the points the Deputy is making are relevant. I am being honest and upfront with the Deputy when I say that these are the rules and regulations with which I must deal, as they are laid out. The Deputy spoke about common sense, in which I am a great believer. I ask the Deputy to sit down next week with me and a departmental official to talk about the issue. Another Deputy from Sinn Féin representing Deputy McConalogue's constituency also has a problem with regard to the pass. Perhaps both Deputies could come in to the Department next week to discuss it.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I urge everyone to be conscious of the clock.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for the offer which I will certainly take up. I look forward to sitting down with him and teasing out this issue. It is unfortunate that this issue was not dealt with last summer, with a new Minister and a fresh approach. This should have been sorted out before now. The Minister of State initiated a review of school transport provision but that review did not take place until after the summer when students were already back at school. It is crucial that we sort out this issue for the next school year. We need to make sure that common sense is blended in with the rules. I accept that the rules must be equitable and fair but they must also be sensible and our job as politicians is to ensure that this is so. I believe an accommodation can be reached which caters for the students involved and ensures that they can continue to attend the school they have always attended while also saving money for the State. Such an accommodation must ensure that the families of the students in question are not left in a situation where they must spend two week's income to pay for school transport. I look forward to the opportunity to meet the Minister of State and emphasise the importance of sorting out this matter once and for all.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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In view of the fact that this is an important question nationally and not just an issue for Donegal, as was suggested, I will provide 20 seconds to Deputy Thomas Byrne to ask a supplementary question. I stress that I am complying with Standing Orders and I am not displaying any favouritism.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome what the Minister of State has just said. There are also cases like this in Deputy Bobby Aylward's constituency. As the Minister of State said himself, the pass in question may be impassable for considerable periods of time. The Minister of State makes the rules and I hope he can change them following engagement with Deputy McConalogue and others. If a pass is impassable for substantial periods of the school year, it must be dealt with.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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We should discuss this further next week. I would make the point that there is an independent school transport appeals board. This case went to the appeals board and the original decision was upheld. That said, I am willing to meet the Deputies next week to see if we can work something out. I hope that is reasonable and acceptable.