Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit to the Upper House. I thank him for taking time out of his very busy schedule. Fair play to him, he is always very available to us here. As the Minister of State knows, Donogh O'Malley, who was Minister for Education from 1966 to 1968, introduced free secondary school education for all in 1967. 1967 was a big year for mankind. Not only was free second level education introduced, it was also the year I was born. There is no going back from either event. The world has changed on both fronts.

When Donogh O'Malley introduced free education, there was also free transport supplied. This was changed under the summary of accounting arrangements in 1975, which allowed for a fee to be introduced. Many people give out about school transport but very few give out about the price that has to be paid. Transport for a primary level student is €50 and at second level it is €75, with an upper limit of €125 for families. To be fair, that is very good value, especially when each place is costing €1,100. It is a very good rate. I want to acknowledge the funding, which has doubled since 2018, and has gone from €200 million to €512 million.

School transport has always been of interest to me.I was fortunate enough to live in the town where I went to school so I never had to use school transport. When I was in secondary school, I remember the girls in my class often talking about the craic, romances and so on that happened on the school bus. It was always of interest to me to listen to all those stories. As a former TD and councillor, and now as a Senator, I work with people who have problems gaining school transport tickets. I am very aware of the whole thing.

I will touch on the issue of drivers over the age of 70. I know it is not within the remit of the Minister of State to fix the situation, but it is crazy. Many 70-year-olds are in much better fettle than myself. They obviously must do driving tests and get certificates, but if it would be safe, I think they should be allowed to drive a school bus. That would save an awful lot of hassle. I agree with the proposal made by my colleague, Senator Curley. It may be a good idea to have one ticket for students in junior infants to sixth class and another for students from first year until their leaving certificates. That might cut out a lot of hassle.

The problems around getting school tickets can be hard on students, many of whom already suffer from stress. Particularly moving to a new class, many students and parents are worried that the ticket will not come through. Is it possible to have the closing date much earlier? In an ideal world, one would want to know a year in advance if one was going to get the school bus the following year or not. It would cut out an awful lot of anxiety. It is not rocket science. We all know the number of pupils who will need tickets. The issue could be worked on to make life easier on students and their families. Behind every worried student are parents and siblings who are also worried. It is causing a lot of upset.