Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to bring the attention of the Cathaoirleach to an important issue. We have had a huge debate the House over the past three or four months about school transportation. We can fight about the rights and wrongs of the school transport scheme over the past few months, but we need to make sure that the review of the scheme that started two years ago is published.It will be April in a matter of a few weeks and families will be applying for school transportation. We must know about the concessionary provision and whether it will be a part of the new scheme or not. It is 22 months since we started this process. The public wants to know what the new scheme will entail. I have been very clear in my views; all kids need to go to school on a school bus. That is something I have been talking about for a long time. Policy has been brought forward that seeks to reduce car transportation by 20%. The easiest way to do this would be to automatically give everyone a place on a school bus. The world would be a winner. Parents and students would be winners.

If we are to do it, we must do it right. I draw attention to something that happened in my part of the world where the school bus broke down for the third or fourth time in the past few days. Yesterday morning, children due to sit their pre-exams in Kinsale Community College were waiting at a crossroad in Nohoval, but the school bus broke down and never turned up. There was utter panic trying to get the children to do their exam. One of them arrived at 10.15 a.m. after the exam had begun. If we are to do the scheme, we must also ensure the quality of the scheme. Some of the buses running under the scheme are nearly 20 years old and are as reliable as an Irish summer. That is not good enough for anyone. We must ensure the quality of the transportation is there and that the scheme is announced. The clock is ticking. This must be sorted by April or, unfortunately, we will have another year with loads of debates where the word "concessionary" will be bandied about and what concessionary means. We need to see real action here otherwise we will have lost another year.