Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last Wednesday, a delegation of Oireachtas Members from Donegal met the Minister of State with responsibility for school transport, Deputy Halligan, and outlined to him the serious problems being experienced by the almost 30 pupils from the Kilmacrennan and Termon areas who do not have school transport to the two secondary schools in Milford. We also outlined how nine children did not have seats on the bus to Gleneely national school, which is in the north Inishowen area of Donegal. The Minister of State agreed to consider both issues. It is to be hoped he will make an intervention and recommendation. Bus Éireann has made it clear to public representatives in Donegal that it cannot provide more buses under the Department's rules. The Minister of State is to make a decision on the issue.

Since our meeting, though, we have discovered that there is another serious issue in Burnfoot, Bridgend, Tooban and Muff in south Inishowen, which feed into the three secondary schools in Buncrana. Thirty pupils in that area do not have seats on their school buses. All but two of them are eligible for school transport under the Department's rules.

There was a public meeting in Muff last Monday evening. The parents who attended outlined a range of reasons for tickets not being secured. Clearly, there has been miscommunication and there have been misunderstandings. Similarly, there was a public meeting in Termon on Monday evening regarding the Milford schools. Again, parents reported issues.

There needs to be some flexibility. In south Inishowen, approximately 30 pupils are affected. In the Milford area, approximately 30 pupils are affected. In Gleneely in north Inishowen, nine pupils are affected. That is a large number of pupils and parents who have been disadvantaged. We talk about keeping people in rural communities, yet we are not giving them the supports they need in terms of school transport. Most of these are working families with fixed hours, so they must make arrangements. This is a major problem for them.

Something has gone wrong this year. Advance preparation has been an issue. Surely a sense of the numbers requiring school transport at post-primary level can be achieved by contacting the primary schools that feed into those secondary schools. Preparing properly and knowing the number of buses is not a major task with the understanding that, sometimes, communications can go wrong and deadlines can be missed. We cannot leave people standing on the side of the road and without the proper transport.

I emailed the Minister of State's ministerial colleague, Deputy Halligan, last night about the issue in south Inishowen. He has all of the facts regarding Gleneely and Milford and he will have all of the details regarding south Inishowen. He needs to make an intervention. We cannot leave that number of pupils and parents behind. It would be unfair.