Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The time has come for us to get away from categorising tickets as concessionary and being eligible for them or not. We must move to a space where any child who wants to get a bus to school should be allowed to do so. We want to get people out of their cars. It does not make sense to have parents in a situation where they must drive their children to school. In an environment and society where for many families, if not the majority, both parents work getting children to school is a huge stress on many families. That is why many parents who had concessionary tickets found themselves in a situation where not having access to a bus made it really difficult for them to get to work on time and to juggle family life, which is already quite stressful for many. That is why I would like us to move away from that situation.

Provision of school transport should be within reason. I acknowledge that in many instances it is not safe for children and their families to walk or cycle to school. Local authorities must provide proper walking and cycling infrastructure because many families would avail of same. Families with children attending primary school are not going to walk very far. A distance between a school and home might seem short to us but it would be a big distance for a primary school student. School transport should be available as close as possible to schools so that anybody outside of that bracket qualifies for a ticket. I ask that the Department provides enough buses to service that. Ultimately, that is where this debate will have taken us. We are now looking at that. The time is right as it makes sense to use school transport with the climate agenda, and it would get people out of their cars and travelling together.

I thank the Minister for the work that she has done to tackle this school transport issue. It was a challenge because this year thousands more people sought bus tickets than the previous year. The Department has done a good job in contacting people. I know that there were challenges in securing extra buses and drivers. It was not acknowledged that the Minister cannot simply magically provide extra buses and drivers where they do not exist. There was also a particular pressure caused by trying to get buses and drivers during the tourism season because other people used their buses for different jobs. Unfortunately, there was some commentary throughout this process that sought to amplify the issue and problem. That was mainly done for political gain by some parties but not everyone. Rather than whipping up anger the time would have been better spent working with local communities and the Department to source buses. Lots of people did that but not everyone, which is regrettable. We will learn from the experience.