Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I take the Cathaoirleach's point, but they are relevant in the context. I am not being pejorative towards them, but I accept the Cathaoirleach's ruling. Neither person to whom I refer thought it was serious or, indeed, a breach.

On 21 January, the principal put it to a senior official in Bus Éireann, a regional co-ordinator, that if a breach of health and safety at Five Crosses were at issue, why not solve it by going further into the Ballybay catchment area, which is the affected catchment area and the catchment area of that school. Why go into the Cootehill catchment area to solve the problem? Logically, the reverse should be the case. She was told in response that there was a continuous white line there. She logically responded by asking why not follow the white line to its conclusion to find a pick-up point, which seemed a reasonable course of action.

One might think, on the face of it, this was something of an over reaction from the school principal. However, the school principal of Cootehill would has to go outside her catchment area to Latton primary school, which is in her catchment area, which is reasonable to protect her school and her teachers and maintain the school's critical mass and its numbers, to recruit students for the coming academic year, but she would be doing so while outside the door of the school there is a bus stop, because of this change, that will take the children to Ballybay. In fact, she is almost going against the grain. The children will see the bus stop, the kids can go to Ballybay from there and it is wrong. Obviously, there are some children in this area going to Ballybay and some going to Cootehill, but Latton is in her St. Aidan's catchment area and she would encounter considerable difficulty in recruiting students in that situation.

For her, there are teacher's jobs at risk. It is not that she has lost students, but there is potential for loss of students. It is not a fanciful notion of hers because the ASTI has officially approached her on the issue and ASTI head office is supporting her call for a change because it is concerned about its members' jobs and the impact on St. Aidan's school.

Although not germane to the motion, St. Aidan's is a wonderful school doing a significant job in its community which supports its demands rather than putting it in an unfair position.

This is what I want to put to the Minister. None of us - the school principal in St. Aidan's, the ASTI, the parents of pupils in St. Aidan's, the board of management nor I - are adjudicating on the health and safety issue. Assuming there is a health and safety issue at Five Crosses, we want a resolution of that within the Monaghan Ballybay catchment area rather than bringing the bus into the Cavan catchment area to solve the problem.

I note that Mr. Gannon, in a letter to the CEO in Cavan, makes the point that health and safety transcends boundaries. Of course it can, and nobody is arguing with that thesis, but it is a reasonable proposition that one would solve it within the area.

It is open to the Cootehill principal to go out and scout her territory on the borders with Monaghan along the whole catchment area to identify other health and safety risks - there are many areas one can identify as health and safety risks - and propose them as health and safety risks and that they be solved by incursions into Monaghan, and one would have bedlam.

I ask the Minister of State to bring order to this and resolve the matter within Monaghan. I appeal to him that it is common sense the matter needs. There is nothing sinister at stake on the part of a school in trying to preserve its numbers and its catchment area.