Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister. The primary school on Sherkin Island closed last June. Children now attend school on the mainland, which means using the ferry to get there. There is no supervisor on the ferry or on the mainland once the ferry docks. The children must then walk to the school bus, which is some distance away. This poses a significant health and safety risk to the children, some of whom are as young as four years of age while others are 12. I call on the Minister to address this as a matter of urgency.

I will set the scene. Sherkin Island is one of the most southerly points in Ireland, an island approximately one mile off the west Cork coast. Three miles long and one wide, it has a beauty and a variety of landscapes. It epitomises all that is good about island living.

As the Minister is aware, Sherkin Island national school closed its doors for the last time at the end of the most recent school year. This saw the end of 124 years of primary education on the island. From the time that the island community was notified that the school was closing, it did its utmost to work with parents, the patron and the Government to ensure that the children on the island had continued access to education. Those children are now attending school on the mainland and, obviously, must use the ferry to get there.

The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has provided an extra ferry to ensure that the children can get off the island in the morning. The residents are grateful for this. However, there is an urgent need for a chaperone on the ferry and to escort the children from the pier to the bus in Baltimore on the mainland.

The Department of Education and Skills stopped the grant aid for the school and left the island people with no provision to access education. The island community, working with the patron and the school, requested meetings with the Department and submitted a proposal to ensure continued access to education.

The Department of Education and Skills advises that ferry services operating from offshore islands do not come under the education transport scheme and while the island community has successfully negotiated a deal whereby the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht would subsidise an additional ferry for morning travel, it does not go far enough. At present, parents of children between the ages of four and 12 are operating a rota system to chaperone their children on the ferry and thereafter from the ferry to the bus on the mainland. This is a four-hour daily commute for parents wishing to educate their children by the only means open to them. It is unfair. They are working parents who cannot afford to take time off. In essence, this system is not sustainable in the long term. The Department of Education and Skills has a responsibility for the safety of these children. There is a social and community benefit to the State supporting these children to attend school on the mainland and still live on the island. I therefore call on the Minister to recognise this oversight and provide a chaperone in order that these children may access education as is their right, in line with their peers on the mainland. If we want to keep our island communities vibrant and sustainable, we need to allow young families to keep living on the island. It is time for a bit of common sense and long-term thinking when it comes to supporting our islands. Will the Minister please provide a chaperone for these children for the ferry?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Murphy O'Mahony for raising this issue. I am happy to reply on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan. The Department and Government are very aware of the importance of small schools in rural communities. That is why it is in the programme for Government that small schools will not be closed without the consent of parents. The initiative for closing a school may come from a variety of sources, such as parents, staff, boards of management, the patron or the Department. Any proposal to close a school must involve consultation with all of the relevant stakeholders and follow decisions taken at local level. I understand that procedure was followed in this case.

The position with regard to school transport is that it is a huge operation. There are 116,000 children, including almost 12,000 children with special educational needs, who are transported every day in approximately 4,500 vehicles. Such a large programme requires that eligibility criteria are applied nationally on a uniform basis. The scheme only provides support for escorts to accompany children with special educational needs. Escorts are not a feature of the mainstream primary or post-primary school transport services. Many children use ordinary scheduled services which provide that access. Bus Éireann is responsible for the planning and time-tabling of school transport routes. It endeavours, within available resources, to ensure that each eligible child has a reasonable level of school transport service in the context of the scheme nationally. Routes are planned so that, as far as possible, no eligible child will have more than 2.4 km to travel to a pick-up point. Children living off the main route of a service are generally expected to make their own way or to be brought to convenient pick-up points along the main route.

In the case of Sherkin Island there is no charge for the children on the ferry. Bus Éireann has advised that there are two children who are in fourth and sixth class who attend Rathmore national school with an address on Sherkin Island. As these children are collected at the pier where they get off the ferry, a long walk is not involved. Unfortunately the scheme that applies has to apply uniformly and we do not provide chaperones in the sort of circumstances the Deputy describes. They are confined to children with special needs. There are other children who have to adapt to the scheme. There are continual demands for expansion and extension of this scheme. We have had to operate in a situation where rules are applied uniformly in order that we can stand over them on a consistent basis and where every child is treated on the same basis.

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. I acknowledge the parents were consulted about the closure but I also acknowledge that they co-operated and held up their hands and accepted this was an inevitable thing to happen. They were also given the understanding at the time that easy access to the mainland would be provided and a chaperone is part of that. The Minister called out the statistics but one size does not fit all. It is a unique situation. It can be very easily solved. A chaperone is not a huge cost. It beggars belief that the Minister is not in a position to provide something that could be so easily and cheaply solved. The islanders have asked for a meeting with the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh. I ask the Minister to say he will at least meet them and listen to their points. He is also very welcome at any stage to visit Sherkin Island for a weekend and we will look after him very well there.

I will end with a quote from President Michael D. Higgins who said:

Nothing is inevitable. The loss of sustainable island life is not inevitable. The recent decline in many of our islands’ populations is a challenge to be addressed.

I am asking the Minister to address this challenge and provide a chaperone for the people of Sherkin Island.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I understand the Deputy's request but chaperones are a very significant cost. We provide chaperones for 12,000 children with special educational needs and they are a very significant cost. Those are a growing area of need.

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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There is the remote area grant.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In applying a national scheme, the Department has to decide if it will extend chaperones to children below a certain age in any circumstances where children might be using such services.

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is water; it is different.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Such an extension of the scheme would be a significant extension; it would not be a minor extension of the scheme. That is the dilemma faced. As I understand it, which the Deputy acknowledged, arrangement was made for support for the ferry so children would be carried free on the ferry and Bus Éireann has arranged that the bus picks the children up at the pier where they land. It is a good accommodation. Within the rules of the scheme, every effort is made to accommodate children.

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is water.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The 2.4 km that some children are expected to walk does not apply here. A more convenient collection point has been arranged. Unfortunately, with a scheme of this scale, where there are so many children with different ages and needs involved, the Department has to apply a consistent approach and that has been the approach applied in this case.