Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

Before summing up, I will deal with a number of questions put to me by some Senators. Senator Power asserted that public moneys funnelled into Bus Éireann to cover the cost of providing school transport somehow find their way towards subsidising other loss-making operations within Bus Éireann. I was most concerned when I first heard that assertion being made and I immediately sought clarification. I understand that: Bus Éireann operates the system on a cost-recovery basis. The accounts associated with the provision of school transport are completely separate from the main accounts or other income streams of Bus Éireann, and the accounts are audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers each year.

What I cannot figure out is why these accounts are not available online for all of us to scrutinise. It is our money that is being spent. I will be meeting Bus Éireann representatives on Thursday to raise a number of issues with them. If there are no legal reasons or reasons concerning commercial sensitivity that the audited accounts cannot be provided online, then they will be online soon. If there are no reasons that cannot happen, they should be available online.

Senator Mooney raised the issue of flexibility, which is a wonderful word and it is certainly an ambition that we all seek to pursue. Getting 123,000 pupils to and from school every day, across 4,000 routes, is a massive logistical operation. When one starts tinkering around the edges of such a system, however, flexibility can somehow lead to chaos. We are trying to provide a streamlined, transparent system that is easily understood and accessed by parents. The current system is complicated.

In two or three years time, parents of children starting primary school should be able to log on to the Department's or Bus Éireann's website. They will be able to click on a map to find whether or not they are entitled to school transport and, if so, the fee involved. They will then click on a "submit" button, pay with a credit card or other method, and print out a ticket. We are ultimately aiming for such a situation and we hope to move towards that model soon. When one tries to provide flexibility in such a system, it does not work. In addition, one begins to chip away at the edges of the genuine savings we are trying to make.

Senator Mooney also said that a special school transport concession which had been given to the Traveller community in the past has now been removed. That concession is being removed because it was recommended that we do so in the Traveller Education Strategy of 2006. The production of that strategy had an input from all the Traveller representative groups. The conclusion of that strategy report was that we were engaging in what they would describe as positive discrimination - but discrimination at the end of the day - by providing this unique and special service for Traveller children.

It is an unhealthy discrimination and one that should be brought to an end. That is the primary reason we are removing the service.

Senator Jim D'Arcy spoke about the auditing of direct costs. I refer to my recommendation that if there are audited accounts, as I understand there are, we should examine them. The Senator also spoke about tendering. If we are to achieve the best possible value for the taxpayer, we need an ongoing rolling tendering process. It is not possible, logistically or physically, to seek tenders for 4,000 routes every year, but there is a rolling tendering process as part of which about 20% of these routes are methodically reviewed each year.

Senator Jillian van Turnhout spoke about the unintended consequences of these measures. I do not believe there are any. The value for money process has been both methodical and forensic. As part of it school transport provision in a number of jurisdictions, particularly Northern Ireland, our closest neighbour, is examined. A number of groups in the education sector feed into the process and everyone concerned has an opportunity to make their views known. There will be minimal displacement as a result of the changes that will happen in September. If one was denied school transport to a particular school, one could not then say one would go to another school instead because that was not an option open to an individual. If one's nearest school is the one to which one cannot gain access, one cannot then claim access to another as an alternative. All of the changes that will happen in September will not lead to the displacement or movement of pupils from one school to another.

Senator James Heffernan referred to the commitments in respect of the closed school rule made back in the 1960s and 1970s and perhaps more recently in the 1980s and 1990s. They were commitments given by the State at the time, but we are not in a position where we can continue to honour them. That is difficult, but it is a fact. We must also acknowledge that the imposition that a child can only access school transport to a central amalgamated school often denies the child the opportunity to gain access to school transport to his or her nearest school, a school that might have been built in the locality post the amalgamation process.

Senator James Heffernan also spoke about how the changes might impact on safety in rural Ireland. Every school is located in a unique position geographically; some schools are located on the side of a minor local road, while others are located on the side of a national primary or secondary route. It is difficult, therefore, to make sweeping statements across on the safety implications of the changes across the school network. Many of us who live in rural areas and have travel to an under 12, under 14 or under 16 hurling match on a Saturday afternoon car-pool. We meet at the local pitch and four or five parents legally bring four other children with them in their car. We travel to and from the match in complete safety.

I recall a time in rural Ireland when such a meitheal or community spirit was the norm. I live beside my local national school in east Galway. A plethora of cars with one parent and one child arrive at the school every morning because coincidentally it is not served by any school transport service. We should reflect on what was important to us in rural communities in the distant past when people worked together and came up with solutions in difficult times. These are also difficult times. I encourage parents to once again engage and show that meitheal or community spirit by pooling their resources. Parents whose children have been denied access to the school transport service following the reduction in the qualifying distance from 10 km to 7 km will be allowed a grant per family of up to €942 per year which they could use as a resource in providing for collective services.

Senator Barrett referred to the provision of €1,020 per child. The figure of €180 million applies across the school transport network and includes a figure of €60 million for special needs children. When that dedicated budget figure is stripped from the total figure, it brings the amount down to €120 million which, for 123,000 children, roughly works out at a provision of €1,020 per child. I acknowledge the paragraph included in my speech covering the matter is quite confusing. It reads: "In addition, from the 2012-13 school year Bus Éireann will assume [complete] responsibility for the operation of the ... system, including the processing of transport grant applications..." The processing of transport grant application is a tiny piece of the logistical challenge facing Bus Éireann. In essence, it has been running the system for decades. At this time there is no other entity in the country with the necessary corporate knowledge or logistical experience to move 123,000 children to and from their homes to school every day. Bus Éireann is the entity which is doing this work, but that does not necessarily mean it will remain the said entity into the future.

I apologise if I did not get to reply to all of the questions raised by Senators. There is no question that this is a difficult time for all of us. The Government has set out to be, continues to be and will be honest, forthright, frank and fair in every statement it makes. If I had latitude to change any of these provisions, I would be seriously examining the making of these changes, but I do not have such latitude. The changes will happen in September. We may have tiny latitude in regard to the changes that will be made in 2012. Therefore, I ask people to work with me and the Government to bring us to a place where we will not have to be looking over our shoulder to Washington and Frankfurt and where we will be fully in control of our future. That is where we want to be and this is one small step in getting to that place.