Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to see the Minister of State in the Chamber to address this matter. School transport is not an easy issue to deal with. There have been massive increases in the cost of school transport over the past 15 years, yet the number of pupils has not increased much or at all. Savings must be made in the public purse this year, involving painful decisions. As an element of public expenditure, we are taking on board that savings will have to be made in school transport as well.

The issue causing most concern with rural school transport is the closed school rule, which has remained relatively unchanged since 1968 when it was introduced. The previous Government brought in this recommendation on the closed school rule, but I believe the decision was wrong because the implications of the decision were not fully thought out. According to the Minister of State, it could affect 26,000 primary school children. The consequences of that are major.

A full review should have been carried out on the implications of the closed school rule criteria for road safety. Many of the schools that were closed back in the 1960s and 1970s were in rural areas, so the children involved were forced into urban schools. If children are now asked to travel inside the 3.2 km radius, they have three options. Their parents can bring them to school, they can hire a private bus operator or they must walk to school. Much of the rural road infrastructure is unsuitable for children walking to school. In addition, if cars are to replace school buses, we will end up with traffic congestion at the school gates. This could lead to fatalities at or near urban schools which replaced the closed rural ones. A review of the safety implications should therefore be carried out.

We should examine the possibility of savings arising from the manner in which Bus Éireann administers the school transport scheme. In that way we might find the few million euro required rather than penalising schoolchildren. I am not blaming the Minister of State who has inherited this situation, but I am asking for a review, if that is possible.