Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, to the House. It is fortuitous that the Minister of State with responsibility for school transport is here to listen to my plea and request and, hopefully, to respond with a degree of compassion and flexibility to bring assistance to the pupils at the Adair national school in Fermoy, County Cork.

We are speaking in Seanad Éireann this afternoon about a matter concerning a minority community mainly of the Church of Ireland tradition. I take this opportunity to cite something the former Senator William Butler Yeats said in this House on 11 June 1925 when speaking about a particular legislative difficulty faced by the minority Church of Ireland people:

We against whom you have done this thing are no petty people. We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Grattan; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created the most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence.

Those comments by the former Senator William Butler Yeats about those whom he termed were no petty people is something upon which we should reflect when we are considering the question of school transport being withdrawn from a minority community and a very small number of pupils.

As the Minister of State may be aware from correspondence submitted to his office, the Adair school in Fermoy, which is under the management of the Church of Ireland, was founded in 1804. It is a very old and established national school that has served its community in a tremendous way for generations.

The Minister of State's Department accepts, from a school transport perspective, that ten pupils in the school meet the distance criteria of the 3.2 km, but the Department has indicated that these ten children do not come from what was termed a distinct locality. On behalf of the pupils, parents, teachers and all people in north Cork concerned about the protection of the rights of a minority group, I advise the Minister of State that the catchment area for this Church of Ireland school in Fermoy is the boundary of the grouping of parishes which makes up the Fermoy union. It is not only a single parish. It is an area covering approximately 400 square miles. That area has been served with school transport for many years.

As far as the parents, the teachers and the pupils would be concerned, that is the distinct locality. For pupils from that area, if they wish to receive an education in a school of their choice and of their tradition, their local school is the Fermoy Adair school.

The Minister of State's office, through one of his principal officers or possibly the principal officer at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, was, I believe, asked to clarify what was meant by a distinct locality and wrote that, in regard to a distinct locality, the guidelines of the scheme clearly outline that a service to convey a group of children whose homes are at scattered points in a school district would not be approved. The strong argument made to me by those concerned about the situation in Fermoy is that under those guidelines no child living in a rural area would be eligible to receive bus transport to school because in rural areas all children live in homes that are at scattered points in a school district. The question of the distinct locality must be looked at again.

In the large geographical area of north Cork there are only two national schools offering a choice to children of Church of Ireland or other minority traditions, Mallow and Fermoy. The Fermoy school has not only pupils of Church of Ireland background. In recent years up to 14 different nationalities have attended these schools. The school is diverse and inclusive in that regard. I am advised the enrolment fluctuates between 35 and 45, but the vast majority of those children are attending that school because it reflects the ethos of their parents, their grandparents and their entire tradition in north Cork, and that is something which must be protected.

I am the first to appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, and his colleagues in Government are under grave financial constraint and that he is reviewing the school bus transport system, but in cases where we are talking about a minority religious tradition we must be exceptionally protective and, where possible, not only compassionate but flexible.

There is some sort of appeal process available and this case may well be under that appeal process at present. Given their tradition and their place in the landscape of the area, not only educationally but socially, culturally and historically, it is important that schools such as the Adair school are protected. Unfortunately, if the school transport service is withdrawn, that will be almost a body blow to the school itself.

I appeal to the Minister of State to look sympathetically and compassionately, and, hopefully, favourably, on the pupils at Adair who since September have been without school transport. Without the return of school transport, the future of this school is under threat. From a religious, societal and inclusive perspective, that would be bad. I hope Deputy Cannon can use his undoubted skill to bring progress to this difficult situation.