Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. We had a long debate on school transport this morning at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. We certainly appreciate the Minister giving of her time to debate this very important issue, which is relevant and important to so many families, students and communities right across the country. It is important that we welcome both the motion and the opportunity to talk about the issues and challenges that exist.

It is also important that we talk about school transport as a vital service. School transport benefits tens of thousands of students and families right around the country, particularly when we think about the 124,000 pupils availing of the service this year, which is a 21% increase on the number who availed of it last year. That is significant. Obviously, we have to think about those 6,000 students who applied for places and did not get them in order to see how we can manage to ensure that they are able to get to school in a timely fashion, and with State support if at all possible.

The scheme is important to everybody, but especially people in rural areas where there are not public transport options or alternatives. In a way, the school transport place is as vital as a school place. Organising a family is the same as running a small business in the context of ensuring proper timetabling, pickups and drop-offs. It is an incredible help when a bus collects and drops off a student and is of great importance.

I acknowledge all of the work the Minister has done in ensuring that cost-of-living measures were put in place in the context of the cost of going back to school. In this House and the Lower House we have acknowledged the cost of going back to school for students. That cost is contemplated within the €2.4 billion package the Government has put in place. Included in that package are measures to increase the back-to-school clothing allowance and provide the extra school meals. Also, an additional €40 million that has been provided for school transport. This has made a significant difference for many families. For some, the saving is €650 a year or €12.50 per week. That is significant and has to be acknowledged. Many parents have acknowledged it to me and to others.

It must also be recognised that when the State provides public and school transport, the number of car journeys taken each day decreases. That leads to improvements both in traffic volumes and the level of carbon emissions. School transport has a very important role to play in that regard. We need significantly more of this. I live in a rural constituency and the Minister represents such a constituency. We know the pressure points that exist at school drop-off and pickup points. Those pressure points give rise to all of the traffic jams in our villages and towns. Indeed, our local authorities have had to spend significant amounts of money on traffic calming measures. If we had a situation where we had a demand-led service that responded to the needs that exist - disregarding the criteria that are there at the moment, which, I appreciate, will be part of the whole reform and review that I will mention later - that would be very important.

There has been a significant increase in the number of tickets allocated across all of the counties. We cannot forget that. The Minister’s commitment that Bus Éireann will continue to process applications and issue tickets, as soon as extra buses and drivers are sourced and become available to provide transport, is welcome. There have been very bad delays in the issuing of tickets. It is very regrettable that we are having this debate on 21 September and schools have been back almost a month. All of these issues should be dealt with in July and August. There should be certainty about transport for our children. I hear about this matter from families and public representatives, not just in Kildare but also in other parts of the country. Families have to make very difficult decisions. People are cutting back on the number of hours they work, certain parents are talking about giving up their jobs or buying second cars in order to be able to ensure that their children get to school. We must do something in this regard.

The Minister has given a commitment in respect of those who are eligible. We also need a commitment regarding those who have concessionary tickets, who had them before and in circumstances where some children within families have them and others do not. That matter needs to be addressed.

On planning, those who registered before 29 April should certainly have received their tickets in the first tranche. We should not have a situation where some of those people have not received tickets and those who were late applicants have received them. I appreciate that there always have to be late applications because of family moves, etc. I am concerned about what certainly seems to be a lack of planning. I would be interested in knowing a little more about the planning that was done in conjunction with Bus Éireann.

On the review of the school transport service, I thank the Minister for ensuring that this has been undertaken. We certainly look forward to it being completed. We will need to address all of the issues around eligibility and concessionary tickets. This should be demand-led. Every child who needs a place should get one. We have to address issues like ethos because, at the moment, Educate Together schools are being left out of the process. We have situations where parents, if they make a choice to send a child to a co-educational school as opposed to a single-sex school, do not have that choice in the context of transport.

The bottom line is that a commitment has been made regarding eligible schools. We need to have a similar commitment in respect of concessionary tickets. Bus Éireann needs to carry out a review in respect of buses that are not full passing by certain stops and regarding tickets that were issued but that were not requested in the first place. The latter is adding to the problem. I thank the Minister for taking the time to listen to us.