Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to take this opportunity to raise the issue of school transportation. We hope we are seven weeks away from having the schools reopening. The lack of clarity regarding the school transportation scheme is something we need to get clarity on as a matter of urgency. Last year, the criteria were changed to allow a second school to be considered for school transportation. We need clarity on whether that is going to be continued. If the 2 m rule we have at the moment in the Houses of the Oireachtas was to be implemented for school transportation, a 52-seater bus could take just 16 students. If the rule goes down to 1 m, just 22 students can be taken. The real crisis at the moment is that parents do not know whether there is going to be an adequate school transportation scheme capable of taking over 100,000 children to school in seven weeks' time.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, should be brought into this Chamber in the next two weeks. She must come here before the end of the month. There is no point in her doing so in September. It will be all over then because the kids will have gone back to school. We have 100,000 kids who do not know whether they are going to get a bus. In a 1 m distancing scenario, 50,000 kids will lose school transportation. That cannot work. Neither rural Ireland, urban Ireland nor families can survive such a scenario. We need to have the Minister in this Chamber in the next ten days to explain how she is going to manage this scenario. If we do not have a school transportation scheme lined up in an adequate timeframe, parents will not be able to cope with the stress they are going to be under.

We put an extra €1 million into the scheme last year when we changed the criteria to have a second school brought in. That important change in the criteria changed the lives of many people. We need clarity and waiting until September will not do. We need to have the Minister in here in the next ten days.