Dáil debates
Thursday, 22 February 2024
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
School Transport
2:20 pm
Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, for coming in today. One of these days the Minister for Education will come in to respond to these Topical issues. I look forward to that day; it would have been nice if it had been today.
Today I am raising the issue of school transport particularly for County Wicklow. The applications for the 2024-25 year will open shortly. Last year there was absolute chaos in Wicklow when it came to the school transport system. Hundreds of students were left behind when it came to school buses.
Despite having paid for their ticket and having received it, they did not get a place on a bus because there was no place for them when it came to September. We actually saw that in many instances, parents were only told on the Friday before schools were due to start that the school bus was not running. One can imagine the stress that put on families because parents work and have other commitments. They had assumed that a school bus would be taking their child to school. We had weeks and months of trying to work with Bus Éireann to get the bus drivers who were required to get these bus services up and running. To be fair to Bus Éireann, it put enormous work into this and it managed to reinstate many of the bus services after a point in time. Much pressure was put on parents, many of whom I spoke to. One of them had to give up her job because she was a lone parent and had no other way of getting her child to school. Another parent sent their child to live in a different house and town because it was closer to where they could get to school. We can see the impact this had on families. We still have three services which are not running in Wicklow - one service with 53 children and two special needs services - so the problem of lack of school transport provision is still ongoing.
At this stage in the year, we need the Minister for Education to ensure that this chaos and debacle does not happen again in September 2024. We need to ensure everything is in place and there are sufficient bus drivers, buses and services. When parents pay for a school bus ticket in the next month or two, they must be guaranteed that there will be a bus to bring their child to and from school every day without fail. That is very important. What measures have been put in place by the Department of Education and the Minister to ensure that happens? That is my first question for the Minister of State. How he can ensure that September 2024 runs smoothly?
The second issue I am asking about is the reimbursement of fees. A grant is being provided for parents who have had to drive their children to school. Unfortunately, it appears that this grant will not be paid to them until after the end of the school year. Parents are not yet receiving reimbursement for that money as it has to be done retrospectively. That is really unfair. I ask the Minister of State if there is any option for parents to be reimbursed on a term basis, so that on the completion of each term the money is calculated and provided to parents. To expect them to cover the costs of driving their children to school for an entire year when they have already paid for a bus ticket is very unfair. I would like an answer from the Minister of State on that.
2:30 pm
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta ós rud é go bhfuil an t-ábhar tábhachtach seo curtha faoi bhráid na Dála inniu. Before I address the specific issue raised, I will provide an outline of the extent of the school transport scheme. The scheme is a significant operation that is managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils travelling on primary and post-primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. The total cost of the scheme in 2023 was €382.02 million. There has been an overall increase in both applications and tickets issued for the 2023-24 school year in comparison to the 2022-23 school year.
The school transport scheme is an important service for families and children. The purpose of the scheme is to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remotely from their nearest school. Under the current scheme, children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 km from the school and are attending their nearest national school, and at post-primary level where they reside not less than 4.8 km from that school and are attending their nearest post-primary school as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Children who are eligible for school transport and who have completed the application process on time are accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation. In addition, temporary alleviation measures have been continued for this school year, which means that transport is provided where there is capacity to do so for post-primary concessionary pupils who are eligible for transport to their nearest school, are attending their second nearest school, applied for school transport by 28 April of last year and paid for a ticket by 9 June 2023. Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who completed the application process on time, are considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated. Such seats are referred to as concessionary seats.
A review of the scheme has been conducted with a view to examining the current scheme, its effectiveness and its sustainability and to ensuring it serves students and their families adequately. The school transport scheme has been in operation for over 55 years since its establishment in 1967 by the late, great, Donogh O'Malley as part of the expansion of second level education. This review is one of the most extensive investigations that has been carried out into the scheme since then. Considering how best to maximise the benefits of the scheme now and into the future has been a significant factor in the review of the scheme.
Following phase 1 of the review, temporary alleviation measures were introduced at post-primary level and are being continued this year. Under these measures, which were initially introduced in 2019, transport is provided where there is a route in operation, where capacity exists for concessionary post-primary pupils who are eligible for transport to their nearest school and are attending their second nearest school, and where they have paid and applied on time. There has been an extensive stakeholder engagement process on all of this. An important finding of the stakeholder engagement process was that the special educational needs transport scheme supports many children in attending specialist school placements which they otherwise may not be able to attend.
An analysis of school transport schemes in other jurisdictions was also conducted. This research and analysis outlined the evidence of the need for a school transport service in an Irish context. The steering group has recently completed its work on the final report of the review. This final report includes recommendations on the future operation of the scheme. l am aware that this review is much awaited and may answer many of Deputy Whitmore's questions and suggestions. It is recognised that improvements need to be made to the scheme. I appreciate the importance of doing this. The Minister expects to be in a position shortly to bring the review to the Government, and it will be published subject to Government approval.
Bus Éireann has confirmed that there are 4,450 children on school transport services in Wicklow, comprising 3,907 on mainstream services, 404 children going to special education needs schools and 141 children on services for children who have arrived in Ireland from Ukraine. Bus Éireann has also confirmed that there are particular issues with drivers, etc., and we all know about this. The significant shortage of drivers has affected students in Wicklow and other parts of the country. Bus Éireann is continuing to prioritise sourcing vehicles and drivers but a small number of routes remain without a service, affecting less than 1% of pupils nationally. Services are being provided for over 99.5% of pupils on a daily basis.
Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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With no disrespect intended to the Minister of State, my questions were not answered at all. I know it is very difficult for him because this is not his remit or his area. We need the Minister for Education to come in so that she can provide direct answers to direct questions that have been presented. I asked two questions. First, what is the Minister doing to ensure the chaos we saw in Wicklow last September, and indeed in previous Septembers, does not happen next year? Second, how can she give confidence to parents in Wicklow that if they pay for their ticket, a bus will show up on day one of their child's school term and will continue for the duration of that term? Those are the questions I have asked. Parents want to know the answers because they have no faith in the system at the moment. It is a fantastic, long-running scheme. Hundreds and thousands of children across the country enjoy and have the benefit of it. I know that there are logistical difficulties, such as the issues with bus drivers. There are many difficulties, but there are also huge gaps.
The huge gap we see in Wicklow, which is probably a particularly bad spot for this, means that the Department is putting huge pressure on families and students. I do not think it is fair. It is particularly not fair because it is preventable if the Minister starts putting the work in now to ensure it does not happen again this year. We need to see Bus Éireann actively recruit. When I asked the Minister what she is doing, she said that this is not her responsibility and that it is up to the contractors. I do not think that is good enough because she is the Minister for Education, she is responsible for this scheme and she is responsible for getting those children onto the buses.
She takes the money from these parents and she should be providing the service.
The second question I asked was whether the reimbursement of moneys could be done on a term basis rather than parents having to wait until July. They are owed this money because the Department did not put a service in place for them in time and has not held up its end of the bargain when it comes to the contract parents have with it for the school bus service.
2:40 pm
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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In answer to the first question on what the Minister is doing about this, in my reply I outlined the quite considerable work that is going on in the full root-and-branch review of the school transport scheme.
Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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That was in September. The review has not been published.
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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That is important because the school transport scheme has run for a long time. There were fairly transparent rules around it and, quite frankly, all of us in the House try to get our constituents on a bus when the rules do not provide for that. In recent years, the rules have been extended, through the temporary alleviation scheme, to allow as many children as possible to get on school buses even if they do not comply with the original rules of the scheme. I am very proud of the work the Department has done on that because, as I said, 99.5% of children can use the service.
The Deputy is right when she says there is a gap, but the gap is 0.5%. We do not want that gap; we want to solve this problem. An extraordinary amount of money, nearly €400 million, is spent on the scheme. I do not think people realise that is the cost of running the service, on top of the fee payments made by parents. The fee payments are a small percentage of that. It is a significant scheme from a resource and taxpayer point of view.
Thousands of children in Wicklow are getting the bus home from school as we speak. There was a 12% increase in the number of tickets issued for 2023-24, which is significant. No services were cancelled. Some contractors, including in my area, handed back bus routes the week or day before school started, as the Deputy knows. That is a problem the Minister has not caused but has to deal with.
Bus Éireann engages with the families affected, as do all of us. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle deals with these issues every single September. We all deal with them to the best of our ability, as does the Department of Education. It is fair to remind ourselves how large a scheme this is financially. A huge part of the scheme ensures children with special needs get to their schools, in terms of taxis, individual services and the people who accompany them on buses. I look forward to the review and I hope it can improve the service. That is not to say there have not been problems - there have been - but I am confident this review will work.