Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge our new Senator and I wish her the very best of luck. I acknowledge her family. It is a wonderful day and a wonderful occasion. I hope she enjoys the experience. It is wonderful to be here. Senator Bradley will do very well. It is great to have a new colleague on these benches.

I raise the issue of school transportation. Two school transportation pilot schemes have been announced by the Department of Education, one in Limerick and Shannon and one in Roscommon and Athlone. In 52 days' time, approximately 160,000 children will be going to school on buses. The majority of them do not have tickets at present. A ticket system is up and running but there is confusion about the criteria to be used regarding the children looking to get the tickets. Every September we have debates in the House about the issue. We speak constantly about trying to make sure we can get the people who need school buses onto them. There are large gaps in my part of the world. There is confusion at present about whether the system will be changed to ensure everyone can go on the bus and what will be the criteria.

In the report published by the Minister she said major changes would happen between now and 2030. That is ridiculous with regard to what we need to see happening. We need to see immediate changes to the school transport scheme. Capacity is an issue. We need to make sure bus drivers aged over 70 who can do private runs can also do the runs for Bus Éireann, which is the principal operator of the school transport system. This is a timebomb. In 50 days' time, school transport will be a plague on all our houses. Parents as well students will be on to us about this issue. We will be trying to deal with a scenario in which we will be getting very little response from the Department. We need to contact the Minister and the Department on putting in place a plan so we do not have the same scenario we had last September, the September before that and the one before that. We know there will be an issue and we need to get clarity from the Minister. The clock is ticking and unless she moves now, unfortunately every Member of the two Houses will be trying to deal with this issue next September.