Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----but following the court case and irrespective of the outcome, my door will remain open to anyone who wants to make such a suggestion.

One should bear in mind that this is a huge logistical operation which takes place approximately 180 days per year. At this point in time, I trust nobody but Bus Éireann to do this. I am not saying that somebody will not come up with an alternative system in the future.

Some 85% of the children who are transported to school are transported by private operators. That is put out to tender every year by Bus Éireann. Last year Bus Éireann began a rolling tendering process of some routes because, as Senators will appreciate, there are 4,000 routes; therefore, it was not able to put out to tender every route. That tender produced a saving ¤2.8 million last year. It is not that we are not trying to extract the maximum possible saving from the system.

A former colleague of mine once said there is only one thing worse than a public monopoly and that is a private one. We need what we call a provider of last resort - in other words, a publicly provided transport system to which we can revert. If we are being taken for a ride by a private operator which we have contracted in to provide all of the school transport and slowly but surely its prices start to go up, we need to be able to revert back to some publicly supported system which might be able to intervene and perhaps convince the private operator that it is not the only show in town. We need to be very careful in this regard. However, I will say once again that my door will remain open and that I have no ideological hang-ups whatsoever in this area. It may be Bus Éireann in ten years time but it may be somebody else.

No one has presented an alternative to Bus Éireann to me or my officials or the Department in recent decades.

Like many of his colleagues on the extreme left of society, Senator Cullinane argues that there is a great golden pot of wealthy people waiting to bail us out of our difficult economic situation. That is not the case. Only last week, the OECD produced a study stating that Ireland has the most progressive taxation system in the EU; therefore, I am afraid the great golden calf that is supposed to exist is not there. We must provide a fair and equitable school transport system and find ¤17 million in savings. Senator Cullinane mentioned that it was ¤17 million this year. That is not the case. It is ¤17 million between 2010 and 2014.

Senator O'Neill mentioned the word "humanitarian". From dealing with my officials and Bus Éireann on a weekly basis, especially in the run-up to the school year, I guarantee there is no approach more humanitarian than that taken in that Department and section in Tullamore. These are people who interact every day with families who find themselves in very difficult situations. We always strive to accommodate any family we can within the terms of the scheme.

We are trying to devise a system that is easily understood, transparent, fair and equitable. Once we put that system in place and build good policy around it, what else do we do other than implement the terms and conditions of that system fairly and equitably throughout the country? At this point or any point in time, no one can argue that it is not fair and equitable to transport children to their nearest school. I do not accept the argument for transporting them to any school other than their nearest school. If parents decide for their own best reasons to send the child to another school, we cannot support that decision by providing transport. We could never afford it and we cannot afford it at this point.