Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share my time Senator Brennan. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit ar ais go dtí an Seanad. I thank him for outlining once again in detail the application of the school transport scheme.

The last sighting of the dodo was in the 1660s in Mauritius. We know nothing about the national recovery plan to which Senator Ned O'Sullivan referred; it, too, is in the ether. It had all the tactical nous of Trapattoni in the European championships. We will leave it at that.

Since the scheme was introduced, it has been of great benefit to hundreds of thousands of children and this has enabled them to attend school regularly. Mr. Neil Kinnock said he was the first member of his family to attend university. The US Vice President, Joe Biden, or someone else stole this line. I was the first member of my family to avail of the school transport scheme. We had to walk before the scheme, in our bare feet. The scheme is of immense importance and we need to maintain it.

As the Minister has outlined, the allocation for the scheme in 2012 was ¤169,693,000. In 2013, the allocation is to be ¤167,435,000. In 2014, the allocation is expected to be ¤163,751,000. This is a huge envelope and the money is not in the system to add to it.

Is it possible to have greater value for money through management, for example? There is a virtual monopoly in the management of the school transport system although much of the work is done by private operators. I refer to the monopoly of Bus Éireann. I would like the Minister to consider this.

All Senators should congratulate the Minister on succeeding in protecting so much of the school transport budget in the current financial circumstances. If I am correct ? I believe I am ? there was a serious proposal at official level to do away with the school scheme.

The Minister of State is to be richly congratulated. I have heard him speak passionately, both in public and in private, on the school transport scheme and his commitment thereto.

Nevertheless, the financial circumstances require some savings to be made. Most are gained by tightening the criteria. For example, children are only eligible for school transport to their nearest school. This will cause problems.

I know of a family of four or five children who live on a hill within a hen's throw of a school. They pass it on their way to a school miles away. Tá dhá thaobh leis an scéal. We must be balanced. There will always be difficult cases and I do not know how they will be handled. That is up to the Minister of State. I do not know whether many of them can be handled. For the sake of efficiencies in the pot of money available to us, we must encourage families to attend their nearest schools. This is the new reality.

I am delighted that we have been able to reduce the concessionary charge to ¤100 from ¤200. It had been coming for a long time and a great deal of work was done. It is a good move forward.

I do not envy the Minister of State his task. I almost supported Senator MacSharry in respect of the Sligo situation that he outlined until he stated that there were many like it, at which point he lost me. If the Minister uses his discretion to look after one situation, it will be the old stroke politics. We are long past that.