Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and commend him and his officials for their work. I was interested to note that in recent years Bus Éireann's accounts have shown the cost per student has increased annually. In effect, it costs more to transport fewer children. The cost in 2009 was ¤1,266 per student, in 2010 it cost ¤1,392 per student, and in 2011 the cost was ¤1,526 per student. The number of students availing of bus transport has decreased by 20%, yet the cost has increased. I understand the counterpoint, that this figure includes 8,000 children with special needs who incur a greater cost because of their special needs and the special transport needed to be provided for them. It is great that this number of children with special needs is transported every day but the State has a responsibility to all children, and while I am not aware of specific instances such as that spoken about by Senator Moran, it is clear the service is not provided in all instances, which is very unsatisfactory. If savings were made elsewhere in the system, surely the average cost per pupil would stay level rather than rising overall. I am not sure that 8,000 children with special needs would result in an average rise of ¤300 per child nationally if the number of children using the service nationally is reducing by 20%.

As many of my colleagues know well, recent changes have been made to the school transport system and I will not go through the points already made by my colleagues as we are somewhat tied for time. Regrettably, as other Senators alluded to, the revised scheme may mean siblings of pupils enrolled in the same school for this school year may not be eligible for school transport, and these siblings could apply for transport on a concessionary basis. As many parents are now aware, changes in the post-primary school transport scheme were announced in the budget in 2011. One of the changes, which took effect this month, means the use of the catchment area system as a means of determining eligibility will cease for all pupils newly entering a post-primary school. Under the new system, school transport eligibility for all new pupils entering a post-primary school will be determined by reference to the distance they reside from their nearest post-primary education centre, and will take into account ethos and language. This will be applied in an equal way nationally.

It is clear that if this were opened up to a tendering process which invited Bus Éireann and private companies to tender for the school transport contract, we might see potential synergies emerge which are unavailable to us, such as between school and hospital transport or with regard to the cost of maintenance for a company with an international fleet as opposed to an indigenous or regional bus company. There are many possibilities. Bus Éireann is doing a reasonable job but there is room for imagination and greater use of resources. We need to open up this sector to competition. Bus Éireann has done a decent job but it can be done better. Given that we will spend ¤170 million on school transport this year, perhaps we should strive for greater savings and synergies across the board. This could be achieved by having an open and competitive tendering process.

I do not want to touch on the legal aspect of the court case concerning this issue, but regardless of whether there was a contract to provide school transportation for Bus Éireann, there should be no question as to there being an open, fair and competitive tendering process in the future. I do not know who would win such a tendering process, but this is precisely the point. Each player should be given a chance to offer innovative ideas, some of which I have heard in dispatches, which could be applied to the school transport system.

While there has been a fair bit of disruption to parents and pupils this year, with the changes made in the budget in 2010 now being realised for the first full year with some regrettable consequences, I hope we do not shy away from further changes. The biggest and most effective change we can make is in how we handle future school transport contracts. I am interested to hear the views of the Minister of State.