Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming into the Chamber to respond to this Topical Issue matter. I thank his Department and Bus Éireann for the good work they have done in recent weeks in north Cork and in Ballyduff in the Minister of State's county of Waterford. Issues regarding school bus transport have been resolved in those areas. A similar issue remains in Mallow, however, regarding the St Joseph's Road catchment area for children attending Gaelscoil Thomáis Dáibhís. In areas such as Castlelands, for example, more than 20 children have been left without public bus transport.

Gaelscoil Thomáis Dáibhís, Mallow, is a successful school in north Cork. It continues to grow and attract increasing numbers of pupils. One of the provisions of its planning approval some years ago was a stipulation that there be an attempt to reduce the number of children dropped off at the school by parents. Providing school bus transport would be one solution. School bus transport was available to all the families who had children going to the Gaelscoil in recent years. This year, for some reason, there has been an increase in the number of pupils seeking to avail of the public bus transport on this route. We now have a scenario where parents have to change their work practices and times and to cope with other forms of disruptions in order that they can get their children to school, which in the case of many such parents is more than 2.5 km away.

This has been a concessionary area in previous years. We must, however, think outside of the box regarding restrictions and qualifications. In the past week, climate change has been the topic of much conversation, as has a reduction the amount of transport on the roads but to do that will mean having buses. I ask the Minister of State to intercede in this case because it is an emergency. This concerns primary school children aged up to 11 or 12 years. The Minister of State has interceded in similar situations recently and made money available for areas including north Cork and west Waterford. I commend him on doing that. He needs to intercede in this case as well because this situation has been causing major problems for parents in recent weeks. I am still receiving telephone calls from parents. They are telling me that they have had to give up their day jobs because their working hours conflict with the need to bring their children to school.

The other major issue is the general traffic disruption caused in Mallow. It is not an easy town to get through. There have been recent repairs to the bridge in the town, which created unnecessary extra journey times. We must remember that Mallow is a big town. I will leave this issue in the hands of the Minister of State after I make one final point. Bus companies find it hard to get people to work for just a few hours a day. One of the restrictions affecting Bus Éireann is that the company will not employ drivers who are older than 70. That is a major anomaly. We are encouraging people to work longer and yet this type of restriction exists. The Minister of State knows that it is difficult to get people to take up a job for only a few hours a day. That type of employment would, however, suit elderly people who are capable and keen to drive our buses. I ask the Minister of State, therefore, to intercede in this issue regarding Gaelscoil Thomáis Dáibhís in Mallow.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I thank Deputy O'Keeffe for raising this matter today and for his kind opening remarks. Before I address the specific issue, I will provide Members with an outline of the extent of the school transport service. The purpose of the Department's school transport scheme is, having regard to available resources and finance, to support the transport to and from school, particularly in rural areas, of children who reside far from their nearest school.

In the 2018-19 school year, more than 117,000 children were transported to primary and post-primary schools twice a day throughout the country, including almost 14,000 children with special needs, in 5,000 vehicles. A total of 100 million km a year were travelled at a cost of more than €200 million.

Believe it or not, the scheme is regarded as being one of the best in Europe. All eligible children, including children with special needs, for whom the scheme is designated are carried through this school transport system at a very reasonable cost. A primary school child is transported twice per day at an annual cost of €100. A value-for-money review carried out by an independent group stated the cost would be more than €1,200 per year by car.

Children are generally eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school. Children who are eligible for school transport and who completed the application process on time have been accommodated on school transport services for the current school year where such services are in operation. Children who are not eligible for school transport but who completed the application process on time are considered for any spare seats that may be on the bus. Where the number of applications for school transport exceeds the number of spare seats available, tickets are allocated using a general selection process.

On an annual basis, Bus Éireann allocates tickets for non-eligible children after all eligible children have been accommodated on school transport services. This exercise normally takes place after the closing date for receipt of payment, with a view to ensuring maximum use of capacity of school bus services. This cut-off point is necessary in order that effective planning of routes and allocation of tickets can take place in a timely manner in advance of the start of the school year.

Bus Éireann has confirmed that a number of children attending the school referred to by the Deputy were not allocated a ticket for the 2019-20 school year due to not having completed the application or payment process within the timeline or who were unsuccessful in the allocation of concessionary transport.

The very good scheme for eligible children and children with special needs was put in place by a Fianna Fáil Government. Rather than leave a few spare seats on a bus go empty, children who were not eligible were allowed travel on it. They received concessionary tickets. At the beginning, there were 300 such tickets and now there are 28,000. The scheme is creaking at the seams. Every year we invest substantial money in the scheme. This year, we were successful in getting an extra €1 million from the Department of Education and Skills and we are looking for more money in the budget. The problem we face is that every year, more eligible children, more children with special needs and more concessionary children come into the scheme. This requires more buses and more money. Children with special needs require carers. Garda clearance is required. Sometimes a child with special needs has two carers. It is a very difficult scheme to manage and run. It is very complicated and over the summer months, it kept staff in my office here until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. as they ensured those who were eligible and children with special needs were accommodated on buses throughout the country.

On the particular issue raised by the Deputy, I am prepared to sit down and speak to him to see exactly how many children are involved and their circumstances. I have no problem doing this. I have met any Deputy or family who has asked to meet me.

Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. He outlined the positive side. Every day, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, is inundated with requests for new classrooms to be added to existing schools. One of the reasons such requests are made is that pupils come to the school from outside the area. Does the Minister tell those parents and teachers to tell those children not to go to that school in order that there would be no problem with overcrowding? No, he does not. The same approach should be taken with regard to the provision of school bus transport.

Gaelscoil Thomáis Dáibhís is in a major catchment area. Mallow is a growing town and I accept that it is sprawling. Payment as such is not a problem. The Minister of State mentioned there were late applications, of which I was not aware, but I am sure this can be addressed. One way of addressing it is to open the programme sooner, in conjunction with the schools and Bus Éireann, to know in advance what numbers are projected to attend each school and from where the children are coming. Then we would not have Bus Éireann telling parents one or two days before the school opens that their children will not have a place on the bus for the coming year. We need to overcome these issues and forward planning and forward thinking are needed.

Many parents accept the circumstance. Bus services have been working positively for a number of years. A bus was put in place for Gaelscoil Thomáis Dáibhís to overcome planning difficulties and travelling congestion at the other major schools in the same catchment area. I acknowledge the offer of the Minister of State to speak on the issue but it is a problem. More than 20 children have been disenfranchised and more than 40 adults have been affected with regard to getting to work.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The Deputy made a number of points, including advertising the scheme. I have spoken to the Department and Bus Éireann and I have often spoken to school principals. We have a website and we contact all of the schools to tell them when the application process is beginning and when people need to apply.

The Deputy asked about extra school buses. If I had my way, all concessionary children would be on buses. The scheme has been legitimately and legislatively put in place for eligible children and children with special needs. I am not aware of any case at present, unless one or two have slipped through the system, where an eligible child or child with special needs is not on a bus.

The Deputy might be aware of the rural grant. Children who cannot get on a bus can apply for the rural grant. The difficulty is that dealing with concessionary tickets requires substantially more funding. It would mean completely revisiting the scheme and putting a new scheme in place whereby children would not need to go to their nearest school. The Deputy would then be coming in here in two years' time looking for a budget of approximately €300 million and certainly €220 million. The argument would then be made that all of this money is being spent on bringing a child to school, while prefabs are falling apart. I am not stating this is correct. I believe children need to be brought to school and I am the Minister of State with responsibility for making sure they are. We are over budget this year. Last year, we went €6 million or €7 million over budget. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has already had us in to tell us we are over budget. I have resisted increasing the price of the scheme and I have resisted taking buses off the routes. The reason is we are able to get all eligible children and children with special needs on buses. I will meet the Deputy on this particular issue and if he wants to bring representatives with him I will be delighted to meet them.