Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has been landed with duties which are not the responsibility of his Department. The Ministers are busy people.

Can the Minister of State please explain to me, in light of the huge uptake of free transport, which is a great thing in theory, what the Department of Education is doing about school transport in order to increase the number of available bus drivers? My parish lost a bus that has run for 50 years, a bus I took to school. Last Tuesday, over 37 families were left on the side of the road and have been left on the side of the road ever since. Nothing has happened to resolve the situation.

I spent the weekend trying to get a bus driver. I thought if I could find one, he or she could drive a bus, but that does not seem to have worked out yet. I spoke to the Bus Éireann school transport bus inspector for our region and gave her the mobile number of the driver I had contacted. I spoke to the contractors and gave them the number of the driver, but nothing has happened. There are a few issues.

While it is great to offer free school transport, it has led to chaotic situations whereby the children of people who have always paid for school transport are not getting bus tickets, while others who never paid for bus transport have received them. That is a good thing, but for people who have always paid for school transport to lose places on school buses is devastating. People have built such arrangements into their routines.

As parents, we all know that in rural areas the only chance of children getting to school is through school transport. There is no public bus service or Luas as there is in Dublin. Many families' plans and days revolve around children getting on a bus to go to school. This does not just affect people in Clare; parents have taken to the streets about this in other areas.

Did the Department think about this? If the number of buses and bus drivers available are not increased, yet the numbers availing of the service increased from 110,000 to 180,000 pupils overnight, of course there will be chaos. It is also unfair for children who always had a bus ticket to not get one this year. I am sure the Department did not set out to create this mess, but we are in a mess and it is taking a toll on all families and students.

In the case of the Inagh to Ennis bus route, the bus driver did not turn up. Parents were told he was ill and were not told when he would return. It turned out that he was moved to another area to fill a gap created by a driver who got sick. One route was prioritised over another. A group of 52 children were abandoned for the sake of another group because somebody got sick. I do not know whether the school transport section is paying contractors to treat students like that.

I do not know where the buck stops, but I want to highlight the fact that contractors have not been reliable in this instance. There was nothing wrong with the driver on the route; he was simply moved to another route. The students were shocked when they met him at school and he said he was sorry he had to leave them and felt bad but he was moved somewhere else.

It is ironic because I have asked for free school transport for years, but when it finally arrived it does not seem to be working. Perhaps Bus Éireann did not expect the uptake. Perhaps a lot of people applied for bus tickets which they are not using. We may need to examine whether parents applied for tickets because they were free and ask them if they need a bus ticket and allow somebody else to take the space instead. There are many facets to this. We cannot offer free school transport and not invest in more bus drivers and buses. What is the Department doing to increase the number of bus drivers? I understand it takes three months to become a bus driver and get a licence.Is the Department doing anything about that? Is it running training courses? If it is I would love to know about them because this is not just an Inagh to Ennis issue, this is happening all over Ireland. I would love to know what the Department is doing about it and what it is doing about sorting out this one particular route, from Inagh to Ennis for the pupils who have relied on this service for more than 50 years until last Tuesday. It is now nine days later and we still have no resolution.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Garvey for her important Commencement matter. There is no doubt but that this issue has caused huge distress to families throughout the country. Before I address the specific issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, I would like to provide an outline of the extent of the school transport service. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the last school year, more than 121,400 children including more than 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. The cost of the scheme in 2021 was €289 million. The school transport scheme is an important service for families and children. The purpose of the Department's school transport scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school.

In July 2022 the Government announced funding for the waiving of school transport scheme fees for the 2022-23 school year as part of a wider package of cost-of-living measures. School transport ticket registration for the 2022-23 school year closed on 29 July, by which time almost 130,000 applications and registrations were received for mainstream school transport. This figure included 44,299 new applications as well as roll-overs from the previous school year. Already more than 126,000 tickets have issued for the 2022-23 school year. At the start of the last school year, circa 103,600 children were carried on mainstream school transport services, in the region of 22,400 additional places already have been created.

The normal eligibility criteria of the scheme still apply and tickets are allocated in line with the criteria. Pupils at primary level are eligible when they live no less than 3.2 km from and are attending their nearest primary school. At post-primary level, students who live no less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest post-primary school education centre are deemed eligible. Any pupils or students who do not meet these criteria are deemed not eligible or otherwise known as concessionary applicants and are allocated a ticket based on the availability of a seat when all eligible children have been catered for. In line with normal practice, all eligible children who completed the application and ticket registration process on time for the 2022-23 school year will be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.

Following discussions between the Minister, Deputy Foley, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and officials in his Department as part of the budgetary process, some additional funding has now been approved for the scheme. This will allow officials in the Department of Education, in consultation with Bus Éireann, to consider and evaluate where temporary additional capacity may be available. The initial focus will be on families who applied on time and who previously held concessionary tickets to alleviate the impact of the increased demands on the scheme for those families. However it is important to stress that this is subject to capacity considerations. Constraints in sourcing vehicles and drivers in certain areas of the country may also mean that it may take a longer number of weeks to explore solutions for additional capacity. The specific issues mentioned by Senator Garvey related to a case where the driver of a route is unfortunately currently unable to work on the route. Bus Éireann is currently working to source a driver at present and hopes to have a replacement as an interim measure shortly.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that response from the Minister of State but there is nothing in it that I did not know already. I have been working on school transport with kids through Green-Schools and modal shift for about 14 years. I have all the figures and I know the rules about 3.2 km and 4.8 km. To be honest, the reply does not deal with the issue at all. I asked a specific question, namely, has the Department done anything about increasing the number of bus drivers. If not, it will not be able to get this bus service that it wants. It is great the Department has the money for it. It is great that it is free but it has caused absolute chaos. Unless the Department actually focuses on increasing the number of bus drivers, it is not going to be resolved. That was the simple question I asked.

Also when the Minister of State's script says “The specific issues mentioned by Senator Garvey related to a case where the driver of a route is unfortunately currently unable to work on the route.” That is not because he was sick or anything. That is because he was moved to another route because the guy on another route fell ill. How did the contractor decide that the students in one area were more important than those in another area? That is the bigger question that I want to highlight with Bus Éireann because they are paying these contractors. These contractors have to be reliable and have some sense of honour towards the pupils they have been driving. In regard to the last line, “Bus Éireann is currently working to source a driver at present”, I do not know if it is. I rang the inspector and told her I have a bus driver. She said “Oh that is brilliant, because we do not have any”. I do not think Bus Éireann was actually looking for one but it was leaving it to the contractor to find a bus driver as the contractor is the one getting paid. I do not know what is happening now. I found a bus driver. I gave the details to the contractor. None of my questions have been answered and I do not think it is the Minister’s fault. There are people who are getting paid a good deal of money to deal with the school transport situation. They have not dealt with it properly. As for the concessionary tickets being given, that is also not true. The ones who got tickets before did not necessarily get it now. None of my questions have really been answered.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will have to refer it back to the Minister, Deputy Foley, because it is not an area of my responsibility. It is her responsibility obviously to ensure that school transport is running effectively as it has done in previous years. I will refer the matter back to the Minister and have her respond to the points that Senator Garvey has genuinely raised in that regard and I fully accept that.