Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. I want to express mo bhuíochas to An Cathaoirleach for selecting this particular Commencement matter and I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, to the Chamber and thank him for his attendance this morning to deal with this matter also.

This is a school transport matter and I know that the Minister of State has been in County Roscommon but perhaps not the part I am referring to. I am sure, however, he has been in our region at some time. North-east Roscommon is a beautiful area and the two villages and the hinterland around them which we are speaking about today is a fantastic community with lovely scenery, great communities and great families. Our issue at the moment is that we do not have a proper school bus service.

The Minister of State will full understand catchment areas. For someone living in the village of Roosky and the parish of Kilglass, Mohill school in County Leitrim is the nearest school. Termonbarry is on the River Shannon just inside County Roscommon. It is the first place someone comes to when crossing the Shannon. The catchment area for those people is the Longford schools. In those cases, the schools are full or are almost full. The second school option, which has been used by many of the parents and students, is Scoil Mhuire Strokestown.

For some time the parents have been trying to put in place a proper school transport bus system run by Bus Éireann and this has not been successful to date. I was asked yesterday evening to get some figures at somewhat short notice but more than 100 students and dozens of families are affected in north-east Roscommon. This creates all sorts of problems for people going to work in the morning where they have to do school runs first. Some people have engaged a private operator who runs part of the service there. Part of the Bus Éireann service comes to a certain point in the parish of Kilglass, but goes no further, and will not go into Roosky village. We have no Bus Éireann bus going into Termonbarry village. It is way beyond time that this matter was sorted out and for the people of that area to get what they deserve, which is a proper school transport system.

I welcome the fact that the Minister for Education and the Government are dealing with a review of the system. All the indications are that there will be changes in the system. The Minister of State may not be able to give me that kind of information this morning but tomorrow is the deadline in respect of getting everything done for the schoolchildren's passes for September 2023. I hope that by that time we will have something put in place, even if the full review is not published, where the Minister of State may have news as to when this review will be published. We are hopeful that something may be put in place that will be definite and will support the families and parents there because already, most of those students are going to Scoil Mhuire Strokestown. That is my old school and a great secondary school with more than 500 pupils. This is a fantastic school and I know that everybody is happy to attend it. We need, however, to get the transport system put in place so that we can take this burden off the parents and students and give that part of north-east Roscommon what many more areas have, which is a proper school bus service. If that is done, I assure the Minister of State the people will be very happy and appreciative of the Government with regard to this matter.

I know he understands my dilemma as I have had a word or two with them already but I hope we will have some light at the end of the tunnel and that we will be able to get to a point that this service will be put in place. We need to do away with the disenfranchising of the students and parents among my own community in north-east Roscommon where we are not getting that service.