Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht a bheith anseo arís. I will start by acknowledging the sheer scale of the school transport system in Ireland. The Minister of State has outlined some of the figures, including the fact that 178,000 students get on approximately 8,200 vehicles around the country on a daily basis, covering 10,600 routes. That is a massive undertaking and we should acknowledge the work of Bus Éireann, departmental officials, drivers, escorts, contractors and everyone who makes this possible. It is a huge undertaking to get 178,000 students safely to school every morning and home again every evening. That is to be commended.

Our party has a huge track record of delivery in the area of school transport. Since we got back into government, we have more than doubled the amount of investment in school transport in Ireland, from €200 million up to €512 million. We are spending more than half a billion euro on an annual basis, which is a huge amount of money and it shows our commitment to school transport in this country. The programme for Government commits to more than 100,000 extra students in the school transport scheme by 2030. That shows real ambition but I am sure the Minister of State will agree that there are challenges to be faced in achieving that by 2030. We all need to work together to make sure that we find the blockages in the system that are making that difficult and make sure we get there by 2030. There are pilot projects under way to try to bring this in on a phased basis to make sure it is achieved and that is very welcome.

Having referred to all of the positives in the system, it is fair to say that we also have massive challenges. Parents have described to me facing a lottery on an annual basis, every August, when it comes to trying to get their child on a school bus. The fact of a student getting a ticket every single year and then potentially losing it the following September needs to be examined. It causes huge anxiety for families every August and September and we need to remember that. This morning, I got a phone call from Councillor David Cassidy in Longford who is dealing with a family that missed the deadline due to a bereavement abroad. The family had to fly to America for a funeral and because they forgot about the deadline, the child has been left without a school bus ticket for the year. We need to have a bit more flexibility in the system. I do not think anyone working in the Department lacks compassion or flexibility but the system handcuffs them a small bit and prevents them from showing compassion in those niche, exceptional circumstances.

I have a number of ideas that I would like to bring to the table today to make the system a little bit more efficient. One is a multi-year applications process that would allow parents to apply once for the full duration of the eight years of primary school. A child would get a ticket in junior infants and have it the whole way up to sixth class because we know the child is going to need that ticket for eight years. If that ticket was valid for the full eight years from junior infants to sixth class and another similar system was brought in at second level to allow for a first year to sixth year ticket, that would take a huge amount of the workload off the administrative staff in the Department who have to issue tickets every year. It would also give a lot more certainty to parents who face that lottery every August, as they have described to me. It would be a hugely positive move.

The Minister of State mentioned driver shortages. I understand that we have to be absolutely certain on this and that student safety on a school bus is paramount. They have to get to school safely every morning and get home safely every evening. I was a teacher for years and saw them hopping on the buses. It is extremely important that they be safe. In some cases, a driver over the age of 70 years can definitely drive a school bus safely. They currently come in to school at 11 a.m. to pick up a hurling, camogie or Gaelic football team and bring them to an extracurricular event but they are deemed unsafe by Bus Éireann at 8 a.m. to bring the same students to school safely. There is an anomaly in the system. If we had more regular driver tests, we could provide a huge supply of drivers that are not currently available before and after school but are available during the school day, because it is a private system. We need to have more flexibility on that in order to address the driver shortages.

In the bigger picture, this scheme is vital for rural access for working families and to reduce carbon emissions in rural areas. We take cars off the road every time we get a child onto a bus. We lower the carbon emissions that we are producing in rural communities and that is vital. It is also vital for students to develop life skills. There is independence involved in getting themselves ready in the morning for the school bus. It teaches them time management skills and gives them an ability to navigate public transport. This is all vital for the development of a child. It is not just about buses and routes; this is a lifeline for families in a lot of cases, where parents need the flexibility to be able to get to work early in the morning knowing that their children will be picked up at the gate and brought to school safely. It is important for parents to have that peace of mind when they are hopping into their cars to go to work in Galway or wherever, to know that their children are at home in a rural parish and are getting on school buses safely. That provides huge peace of mind for parents. I know that we are doing a lot to enable that but there is a way to go to get the scheme completely sorted by 2030.

I reiterate that Fianna Fáil, like the Minister of State himself, is committed to the scheme. We are committed to the three goals of certainty, compassion and capacity. We want to give certainty to parents, we want compassion in the system for those isolated incidents and we want a huge increase in capacity in terms of the number of buses and drivers in the system. We all agree that no parent should face sleepless nights in August, wondering if his or her child will get to school safely on a bus for the school year. That is a goal that we should all have, namely, to make sure that no parent faces that uncertainty in August. Continuous investment and reform will ensure that the scheme is fairer, more flexible and fit for the future.