Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as teacht isteach ar 6 p.m. leath slí tríd an tseachtain. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil sí an-ghnóthach so tá meas mór agam uirthi as teacht isteach.

We have had school transport issues for years and since long before the Minister, Deputy Foley, was ever appointed. We cannot put all of the blame on her, especially when her role requires her to deal with every single aspect of education and not just school transport. The school transport section has let the Minister down and has been letting people in rural Ireland down for many years, not just this year. Every single September for the past three years and since I got involved in politics, I have been plagued by people begging me to sort out school bus tickets. They are getting no communication from the school transport section of the Department. There is a serious issue and goes back long before the Minister was appointed.

When free school transport was offered it was a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, its roll-out, as the Minister will be aware and other Ministers have explained, has been disturbing, to say the least. When I brought this matter up last week, I asked two specific questions, neither of which was answered by the Minister's officials. I am aware the Minister does not write her own answers and I could not possibly expect her to, but the answer from her officials was insulting. They did not answer the questions we asked. As a result, we had to get the Minister into the Chamber today for an hour to try to get some real answers. I asked two simple questions on the day. The first was what the Department had done in preparation for implementing this great idea of providing free transport to increase the number of available bus drivers. The second was whether there is a plan to do a recruitment drive for bus drivers. Neither question was answered. That is not the Minister's fault but it is not good enough for people who take the time to contact me or for me, having taken the time to raise the matter in the House. The purpose of Commencement matters is to get answers to questions from Ministers in different Departments.

There is no logic or cop-on in the school transport section. Bus routes are often out of date and do not pass areas where students need to be picked up. The Minister has been told the students who applied for their bus tickets in time all got their bus tickets and are all happy now. Unfortunately, that is just not true. I have lots of cases of students who applied for the bus ticket for the first time ever and got one, whereas students who have always paid for a ticket did not get one. I am delighted for those students who got a ticket for the first time. I am really happy for them because school transport should always have been free for everybody. I have been asking for that for years having worked with school transport. Unfortunately, that causes divisions and the last thing we need in rural communities is division. We want to try to bring communities together. There are inconsistencies in that regard. I do not know who is responsible in the Department or the school transport section. I cannot blame our local inspector in Bus Éireann in Limerick and Clare because she has been doing stellar work trying to sort out drivers for buses because of the shortages.

It is just not true, as the Minister has been told, that all students who applied for bus tickets on time got them. That is not the case, unfortunately. It is also not the case that all buses are full. Students are being told they cannot get a bus ticket because the buses are full, yet the buses are being driven around half-empty. I am not making this up. That is a fact. I have seen the buses myself. Parents are also driving behind buses because one child got a ticket and a sibling did not, so the parents still have to drive their children to school.

There are also issues with the rule that students must live a certain distance from their school. We should remove the distance rule in the long term because until we have proper walking and cycling infrastructure, taking a bus is the next best option. The limit is set at 2.4 miles, I believe. That was grand 40 years ago when the rest of us could walk and cycle safely to school, but it is not an option now. We must look at that distance barrier because it is prohibiting people who live too far from school or cannot walk or cycle safely to school from getting the school bus.

I would like it if we did not have to continue pestering the Department of Education using the email for public representatives to try to get answers for parents basically because the parents are not getting answers themselves. The email system has failed and is not working. The facility is being centralised in Dublin and there is no longer an email or phone number available for Limerick. Schools in Clare and Limerick used to have that. When we eventually get through to Dublin, the people on the line do not have a clue what we are talking about because they have not received the email that was sent in. There are lots of issues.

I praise the Minister for introducing free school transport. It is a brilliant idea. Petrol and diesel prices are a big part of the reason people have applied for tickets who may never have applied before. As a single parent, I remember when my son was younger I only needed him to get a lift home from school in the evenings. I just did not have €350 for a ticket and I could not get a half-price school ticket even though I could get him to school in the mornings. There are lots of different issues, including legacy issues that arose long before the Minister's time. I would love to work with the Minister on this. I worked on modal shift with schools for 12 years full-time, including on school transport. I worked well with bus drivers on turning off their engines. Engine idling, or leaving engines running, is a major issue. The bus drivers do not pay for the fuel. The Department and the taxpayer pay for it.

We need to do the basics for people. They need to receive replies to emails and phone calls. I do not know if the Department needs more staff or what is happening but it is not good enough at the moment. It is not our job to follow up about every single bus ticket. That is a waste of our time. We have been doing that because we want to serve our constituents, but if the system was improved, it would free up our time and parents would be treated with the respect they deserve when they try to get their child a place on a school bus.