Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann:

acknowledges: - the impact of the free School Transport Scheme to mitigate increased costs of living for families in Ireland;

- access for 44,000 new eligible students at primary and post-primary level to school transport;

- an increase of 16% in new school transport tickets;

- increased Government investment in school transport; notes the: - volume of applications for the School Transport Scheme;

- challenge with capacity of bus services and availability of drivers;

- impact on parents who have previously paid for school concessionary tickets;

- impact in rural areas where parents have no other public transport options;

- delay in notification to families and parents who applied earlier in the year;

- discrimination by Bus Éireann, due to their policy of excluding those who are over 70 years of age, from driving school buses; and calls on the Government to: - immediately increase funding to meet the demand for school transport, with 130,000 applications, including students, availing of concessionary tickets in previous years;

- recognise that public transport options reduces thousands of car journeys each day with a follow-on impact on mitigating costs of living and benefitting the environment through reducing air pollution and emissions;

- increase the safety of school drops and pick-ups on busy roads with additional bus services;

- support families living in regional areas by providing public school transport options;

- increase the driver age for school transport to 75, in line with recent legislation in the Department of Transport where drivers under 75 years of age no longer have to supply a medical report confirming their fitness to drive, unless they have an identified or specified illness or are required to do so by law;

- increase access to school transport options for parents and students at post-primary level, which is particularly relevant in rural areas, where there may be second-level school options in two neighbouring towns.

I thank the Minister for coming to join us this evening. She was with us this morning at the Joint Committee on Education Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and she also came to join us for our joint-Senator Commencement matter last week. The Minister has listened to the representatives in this Chamber and she has probably heard, in both Houses, about the challenges that people throughout the country are facing.

This programme is a fantastic initiative. The intent was to reduce the cost of living for many families by reducing a cost that was €650 per year down to €500 per year and, eventually, to offer it to families for free this year. Of course, we are all now aware of the challenges that have come with that. We wish to acknowledge this has been a fantastic initiative. The Minister has noted that €300 million of Government spending already has gone on this initiative that has delivered free transport for more than 124,000 mainstream students. Is there a separate category for children with special needs additional to this? However, I know the increase on last year has been massive and 44,000 new families have come on board.

The fantastic thing here is that it makes our roads safer. It makes pick-up and drop-off at schools safer, especially in rural areas where schools are on busy roads that could be in an 80 km/h zone instead of a 50 km/h zone. It has an amazing impact. However the reason we are here today and the reason Fine Gael Members have brought this motion is that we need to see solutions and additional funding put in place for the 6,000 children whose parents have applied for places, as part of the more than 130,000 applications and yet who have no possibility of access to tickets.

I have attended public meetings in the constituency in which I live for parents who are trying to get children to schools in Mountbellew, Ballygar or Ballinasloe. I believe the reason that this has an impact on rural areas is the catchment area of smaller towns. One cannot fill schools from the families that live in the immediate vicinity. Many rural schools are pulling families from a catchment area of 15 km or 20 km. That has a considerable impact on those schools. We are looking at schools with 400 or 500 students at secondary level. I have seen this as a greater challenge in post-primary schools in my own area.

In this Private Members' motion, we are calling for an increase of funding to meet the demand for school transport for those 6,000 children and students that have been left. There is a major impact on parents. We are dealing with calls from parents, who always had access, who are leaving their jobs, are dealing with immense stress and trying to deal with a number of children. I have spoken already this morning about the level of expectation but one of the real challenges about what we have seen in the past month or so is this expectation by parents when they had the ticket previously. There was a roll-over of applications and the process is such that they may only have received the notification in the first or second week of September. I know that was due to the considerable number of applications.

The Minister, however, has noted she will look at engaging with the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, on this funding. She has noted the budget that is coming out next week. Fine Gael has raised this numerous times in our grouping. I know that we are also engaging with the office of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to engage with the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath. It is urgent and vital that we find a solution. This is a fantastic initiative that has brought benefit to so many but we have these families that have been left outside of the programme.

I acknowledge that the Minister has the school transport review programme that, it is hoped, will come to a conclusion by the end of this year. I am sure there will be many new proposals in the programme but we need solutions now, not next year. Families are struggling right now. They are going day to day without knowing what will happen in the week or two ahead. I take on board the criteria the Minister has mentioned but for many of these families, they have only discovered this definition of concessionary or eligible now. They have always had access to these tickets.

In respect of this challenge around the definitions of eligibility and concessionary, we are coming across schools where they are at maximum capacity in first year, for example. What are the opportunities for the P3 schools?We are delving into the nitty-gritty detail of eligibility criteria for families who are really struggling. The intent of the Bill and that of the Minister, and the legacy she wishes this Bill to have, is that it will be groundbreaking in terms of taking cars off the road, safe routes to school for children and reducing costs, thereby making a major impact to families' income and household expenditure for the year that is in it with the energy crisis we are facing. There is a legacy with this initiative the Minister brought forward. We are asking that we find solutions for the remaining applications that are still outstanding.