Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank him for coming to the House. He is always amenable to talking about this and other topics. As a townie who used to cycle to school, I am a little disappointed to hear from my colleague, Senator Murphy O'Mahony, how many romances I may have missed out on. Perhaps that was a good thing.

I will not repeat what has been said by my colleagues. The school bus system has, in the main, been a success. Some 172,000 children are accommodated. Funding has almost doubled in recent years. There is also the special transport grant. The Leap fare for children and free travel have helped those who have to travel a distance to school.

All of us here received many calls over the summer. Many parents have been challenged because they had to wait to see if they were going to get bus places. It seemed a random lottery in many ways. I am still working on a couple of cases for parents whose children had tickets from first year but who, out of the blue, did not have places as they were moving into their leaving certificate year, which is a worrying and trying year. We are still not out of the woods with many of those cases. As was mentioned earlier, we are sometimes being held hostage as we are beholden to private providers.

Another area about which I have been contacted is bus escorts and children with special needs, additional needs or complex needs who may need somebody to travel on the bus with them, often for long distances. I spoke with a fantastic therapeutic centre in Drogheda, County Louth, called Sensory Space. It is run by two amazing women, Agne Guste and Jurgita Pakste. They are running special training courses, not only for bus escorts but also for bus drivers, whom they feel need that level of training. They are simple enough courses. Not every child has a very complex need and may just be dealing with undiagnosed ADHD or autism. The bus drivers may not understand if distress is caused, particularly on long journeys or if the children are changing their routines or coming to a different route. Ms Guste and Ms Pakste have suggested that this service, or something similar, could be made available to Bus Éireann drivers, school drivers and volunteer drivers. It is a matter that could be looked into. A simple training course could be made available to anybody who is a bus driver or escort.

I will reiterate what some of my colleagues have said. I know it is not under the remit of the Minister of State, but there are many valuable drivers over the age of 70 who are active and would love to give back and continue to drive their particular routes subject to some sort of licensing test. There are drivers who would love to continue driving.

School transport remains a challenge but I know it is a matter that the Minister of State and others will remain across. Go raibh maith agat for coming to the House.