asked the Minister for Education the maximum number of schoolchildren who are carried by a full-size school bus; and what arrangements are made for the safety of the children boarding, alighting from and while on the bus.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - School Bus Service.
48.
The loading on buses used exclusively to carry children to and from school is regulated by Article 80 of the Road Traffic (Construction, Equipment and Use of Vehicles) Regulations, 1963 (Statutory Instrument No. 190 of 1963) as amended by the Road Traffic (Construction, Equipment and Use of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulations, 1967 (Statutory Instrument No. 273 of 1967). Maximum loading is calculated on the basis of three schoolchildren to every two adult seats plus the permitted allowance for standing passengers.
The question of safety on school buses continues to receive very special attention. Arrangements in force include the following safeguards:—
(i) Drivers have been instructed to exercise the greatest care in picking-up and setting down children.
(ii) A prefect system operates on every bus to assist the driver in all aspects of safety and behaviour.
(iii) Various circulars, posters and leaflets have been prepared jointly by my Department, the Department of Local Government and CIE and issued to the schools. The circulars incorporate detailed safety regulations which cover the matters referred to by the Deputy.
(iv) The Department of Local Government have also produced a film on school bus safety which has been shown frequently on RTE.
(v) The majority of school buses are painted in distinctive colours for easy identification by other road users. Buses which are not so painted are fitted with safety signs depicting the international symbol for schoolchildren.
If the Minister had been listening to himself reading the first part of his answer he would be as amused as everyone else in the House. Is it not true that school buses have been known to have loaded on them as many as 85 children and is the Minister not aware that in some of these buses one man, or one woman, underpaid, is required to drive the bus and to look after the children at the same time? Is he also aware that occasions have arisen on which buses have had to stop and the children have had to get out to clear animals off the road? Last week a bus had to back nearly half a mile up a road. Would the Minister not agree that the situation appears to be treated as if it were one which is not important and would he try to do something to make the safety of children on these buses a more important matter?
First of all, I am not aware of any of the matters put forward by the Deputy. If he has specific cases and lets me have particulars I will have them investigated.
I shall be glad to do so.
I have indicated in my reply all the precautions that are being taken. I think we are, in fact, taking excellent precautions in relation to these buses. We are particularly concerned and I have given a number of points here which clearly indicate how concerned we are.
Would the Minister——
We cannot debate this question all evening.
I asked one supplementary.
It was a very long supplementary.
Yes, and the Minister gave a very short answer to it. Is the Minister not aware that the position is as I have stated: no matter what notices are sent out it is a fact that 85 children have, in some cases, been loaded on these buses and, unless the driver is a superman, it is impossible for him to look after these children? Will the Minister not make some other arrangement? To talk of prefects on the buses is rather foolish because little children do not appreciate the responsibility of being prefects.
They are not always little children. Some of them are 15 years of age and over. If the Deputy will give me specific instances I will have them investigated. It is very easy to come in here and make charges.
I will give the Minister the details.
49.
asked the Minister for Education if he has received representations with regard to the transport of handicapped children to a school in Dublin from Navan, County Meath; and what the present position is.
From time to time I have received representations regarding the provision of week-end transport for handicapped children from An Uaimh who attend special schools in Dublin on a 5-day residential basis. As An Uaimh is 30 miles from Dublin and within the limits of the scheme for free week-end transport for handicapped children allowed by the Department, there has been no problem about these cases and free transport has been allowed.
Recently representations were made to allow daily transport from the town for a particular child in a particular set of circumstances. This arrangement was agreed to and the parent informed accordingly. Subsequently, however, the circumstances changed and as a result the question of daily transport for this child was no longer feasible. As the Deputy has not given me particulars of the case, or cases, that he has in mind I suggest that he do so and I can have the matter investigated.
Surely the Minister is aware that this matter has been taken up with his private secretary on a number of occasions and all the details are already in his Department. Would the Minister agree, if it could be found possible to take a number of children daily from Navan to Dublin and back again in the evening, that would be a saving on the Department as well as being far more convenient for the children concerned? There are one or two children who cannot go to any school because there is no school available.
The question that arises here is whether the day school or the residential school is the better for the particular types of children. In the particular instance I mentioned — I am sure it is the one the Deputy has in mind — we felt a residential school would be better but, because of certain circumstances, it appears the child cannot avail of this.
If there are two or three in a similar position surely it should be possible to make arrangements for them?
But the others are not in a similar position.
But some of them cannot go to school for the same reason.
50.
asked the Minister for Education if he will state whether there is a uniform rate per mile to mini-bus owners who are engaged in school transport.
Córas Iompair Éireann do not pay a uniform rate per mile to mini-bus owners who are engaged in school transport. Approximately 900 mini-buses of various types and seating capacities are employed in the operation of special school services. The pattern and scope of employment, nature of roads and terrain are among the many considerations taken into account by CIE in making contracts with individual mini-bus owners. Such contracts are not, therefore, related solely to mileage operated and a uniform rate per mile would not be appropriate.