Michael Fitzmaurice: Urgent plea to fix school bus tickets

Graeme Agat, Alaskan Comhairle, just to put on the record, a few weeks ago Minister Harkin, I brought to her attention a problem for apprenticeships and in fairness last Sunday evening she rang me and over the last few weeks she has resolved this issue which was a problem for a lot of apprenticeships and I want to put on the record that I thank her. It's actually good from a mother to ring you that never engaged in politics to say that at least when someone picks up a phone and talks to them and solves something they're grateful of it. But I hope you'll listen to me now, Tánaiste, in the next issue that I have here where in the 80s when Ireland and a lot of people had to go out of the country because there was no work, we're in recession, we had the old yellow school bus going around the country picking up people, picking up students, bringing them to national and secondary school. They were actually owned by the state those buses. Ireland had approximately 3.5 million people on average throughout the 80s and we were taking between 135 and 140,000 children to school when there's a saying down the country about a pot but when we hadn't a lot of money in this country to basically put in, or no exchequer money, but we still were able to keep it going. But unfortunately, and I know there has been reviews and I know there has been public consultation and I know there has been all the different documents and I've spoke to Minister Moynihan, I'm not throwing blame at him, I want to be very clear on that, but we're going back every year to the same, same old story. People are applying in February for the tickets, kids that might be two years going to a school and this is on discretionary as well, two years going to a school and then they're going into third year and they get the word, no you're not getting a ticket. We've about 15 to 16 schools. I saw last January or February, I brought a full map of where Pairdons and Willemstown and County Galway done a full list out of all the children that need a bus and I handed it to him and he sent it on to the relevant department. You can go from Boyle to Top McConnell and Ryscommon and right through Fuehrty, Atlee, all the different areas. You go into Galway and you have the same problem. And we can give out about it, but we need to solve it. And I would ask you, would somebody please get on to those civil servants that's in, well it's the Department of Education but it's the bus airdrome section, because the same thing reoccurs every year. We have gone from a stage where we had our own buses, the state-owned buses, a lot of public buses are in now, and yes there is more children, I agree it's 175 or 80,000, but just think of the figures I give you, that three and a half million people, we have an increase of two-thirds of a population now, with five and a half million people who were gone, 30,000 people more to carry them to school. I would ask you to punish that, because the end of August is coming, peardons have to keep working and our kids won't have a ticket. Thank you Deputy. Would you over the summer get someone or crack the whip with someone to try and get this resolved once and for all, please. Thank you to Deputy Fitzmorris, and thank you for your kind words in relation to Minister Harkin, working on a Sunday evening and getting back to people as well, so it's good to hear progress on that apprenticeship issue as well, good, good, good. I want to thank you for raising this important issue though as well, because let's be honest, school bus tickets, school bus places is kind of a perennial issue, and there's been lots of efforts by successive governments, successive Iraq, the successive ministers to try and make progress on this, and some progress has been made, but clearly it's a system that is still in need of further reform, improvements and sometimes a degree of common sense as well. Now the number of children that have been supported under the school transport scheme, as Deputy Fitzmorris knows and alluded to, has grown very significantly in recent years. Since 2018, the number of children has grown from 120,000 in 2018 to over 181,000 as well. Included in that figure is 24,000 pupils with special educational needs. I'm very happy that that's the fact. There's also though sometimes an additional complexity around staffing, size of buses etc, in relation to that too. The size of the scheme from a funding point of view has more than doubled, with a budget of about 200 million in 2018. We're now spending 537 million on it as well. So there are 181,000 people transported to school daily, there's more than 8,600 vehicles used, and there's around 11,100 routes. So I make that point just to show the scale of the operation here is very, very significant. More than 10,000 routes, thousands and thousands of buses, and not a million miles away from 200,000 students as well. Now the current terms of the scheme are going to continue to apply for 2026-2027 school year, and under those terms primary school children who are eligible if they live 3.2 kilometres or more from their nearest national school, and post-primary school children are eligible as they're 4.8. So 4.8 if you're a post-primary, 3.2 if you're a primary school student as well. And the department's priority right now is to provide transport for all of those students that are eligible under that scheme as well. Sometimes children who aren't eligible under that criteria, but have completed the application process on time, do get seats as they become available after eligible children have been assessed as well. That's my understanding of how quite a complicated system does work as well. Look, there is a broader need here though, Deputy, and indeed we have published the way forward in terms of a broader reform of the system, and I do take that point. But I think the priority for this school year has to be to get tickets out as quickly as possible. Bus Air and have begun to issue tickets for the school transport service for the upcoming school year. That process will continue throughout the summer as routes are finalised, and where a family has a specific query about their eligibility status, they should contact the school transport section. I'll speak to Minister Moynihan on foot if you're raising this here today, and ask that he continue to keep engaged with you, and indeed I'm sure with the ROCBIS members right across the house. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Morris. I'm quite astonished. I know that it was 120,000 in 18, but just think back. It was 135,000 to 140,000 in the 80s. So that's the base that we went from when Ireland wouldn't be over, basically, in the line of money. The one thing I will say, parents engaging, you're as well off if you try to talk to someone in the White House as trying to talk to them in the Bus Ayrton or in the depots for the school things. That's been quite blunt about it. There is a problem, and today the doll will rise, but on the 26th or 7th or 8th of August, kids will be going back to school, or children will be going back to school. A lot of parents are working, as you know, and we keep talking in this country about public transport, and the basic public transport, it's like, as I'd always say, if you're hurling a football, you get them young, and you get them in on it, and they should become pretty good at it or in the line of sports. It's the same with public transport. If you can supply public transport, they'll get used to it, and they'll have a tendency to use it. Would you try over the coming few weeks to resolve the issues in the line of this, so that parents' nightmares, as well as the uncertainty, and bear in mind one thing, and all of us are children that I'm talking about, for the last two years have had this concessionary ticket. When they're doing out contracts, I just don't know why they don't put in a 23-seater, 33-seater, and a 50-seater, that if population increases, that they are able to adapt under any procurement rules. Well, go raibh maith agat. I knew you'd have to mention the GAA with Galway Limerick at the weekend, but best of luck to everybody. So, can I firstly just say, we're very committed to the school transport scheme. We genuinely are, and if you want to see our commitment, look at our budget. So, any government that has more than doubled the amount we're spending on school transport between 2018 and now is a sign of real commitment. Having said that, and I know you're a very kind of practical, common-sense person, how you approach these issues in terms of looking for solutions, when you are spending such a large amount of money, I do think there's an onus on saying, well, is the system working well? And I couldn't put my hand on my heart and not suggest that there are improvements that could be made and need to be made, and government is fully committed to that. So, I mean, job number one was to try and stabilise the situation, quite frankly. Some good change has been made, I think, Minister Kenney, for the work done around this over 70s. I hope it's an area that we can see even expanded further, but it was an ageist provision, people willing to drive buses and telling them they couldn't, so they could drive the bus to the football match, bizarre stuff. But we've made some progress in relation to that. I take the point, you've also referenced it all going into summer recess, but obviously you won't be going away and we won't be going away here in the sense that we'll all be working on these issues through our constituencies, keeping in close contact with them. Let's try to get through this September, but then to build on the report that was published in terms of what the school transport system needs to look like into the future, and I'm very happy to continue to work with you on that.