Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Táim ag glacadh na ráitis seo ar son mo chomhghleacaí, an Seanadóir Warfield, nach bhfuil ar fáil anocht.

I welcome the opportunity to address the Minister on these important statements, the reasons for which colleagues have outlined. Every year, we have a situation where children and young people are tuned away from school transport because of a failure by the Government to recognise demand and invest in extra capacity. A number of months ago, Sinn Féin called for 10,000 extra places to be funded and made available to help meet demand when parents across the State were getting notified that they had failed to secure a seat for their child on the local school bus.

Each and every year, the school transport scheme is significantly oversubscribed. Instead of harnessing that demand, Government Deputies sit on their hands. The Government has allowed the situation to repeat itself year after year. Fáinne fí atá i gceist leis seo. We need to stop this repetitive cycle. This issue causes huge headaches and problems for parents who are trying to juggle their work commitments. It gives Senator Garvey terrible anxiety, as she outlined very clearly.

School transport chaos is the new normal for so many families due to Government incompetence. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we have a situation where parents across the State are now faced with the reality of giving up work because of the mess. In addition, we turn thousands of children away from a public transport option. That is totally at odds with our climate ambitions. It results in thousands of extra private car journeys to and from schools each and every day.

While a decision by Government to temporarily eliminate school transport fees for the 2022-2023 school year was welcome, it did nothing to address the capacity constraints. The Government should have anticipated there would be increased demand. More needs to be done going forward so that we are not having the same conversation once again next year. For our part, Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for 10,000 extra seats to be added to the system. We need to invest in new school buses and eliminate school transport fees. By expanding the school transport scheme, we can cut transport emissions, reduce dangerous traffic congestion outside schools and provide parents and guardians with a convenient method of transport for their kids. All this would be a win-win situation for parents and the environment. I would, therefore, encourage the Minister and her colleague, the Minister for Transport, to use the time in the academic year to increase capacity to ensure as many children as possible can be accommodated going forward. Déanann sé ciall, go huile agus go hiomlán, an cinneadh seo a ghlacadh.