I should like to thank the Chair for allowing this motion to be brought up as it is urgent. I feel that when a question was asked we should have been able to get a full reply to it, because if the tickets were taken away from those children it meant that there must have been some reason for it, some decision on it, and for that reason I was disappointed when I was told there was further investigation needed.
As I said at the outset, these children were going to school by bus, some of them travelling free and some fare-paying. Just over two weeks ago, one evening, the inspector boarded the bus and took the tickets from the children. I have never heard of this happening before. I understood that when you had a ticket, even if you had gone over the distance, you were given the opportunity of staying on the bus until the end of the journey. As much as anything else, it would give the parents a chance during the school holidays to make alternative arrangements for the children to get to school. The weather has not been too bad since, and it has not been such a hardship on the children to travel to school.
This family, who were living on one side of the road, bought another farm across the road and moved in. They are now maintaining that they are nearer to Daingean school and that there can be only 200 yards at the most between the two gateways. This new house has an avenue leading to it. If the distance was measured up to the house you would find that it would be the same in both cases. For that reason, I feel there may have been some mistake when the measurements were being taken. On a number of occasions children have been found to be nearer another school, but because all the family had been attending the schools in Trim, or in their particular area, they were allowed to continue on, as naturally it would be a disruption of their education, particularly national education, if the children had to move to another school. For that reason there should have been more notice taken when it was decided to withdraw the tickets from those children. It was a hardship on them to be told at a moment's notice that the tickets were being withdrawn. It was in conflict with the normal procedure regarding the transporting of children to national schools.
I would ask the Parliamentary Secretary to reconsider this case and to return the tickets to the children. We should have got a full reply on this case and a decision should have been given when the parliamentary question was put down.
