I thank you, Sir, for permitting me to raise this matter on the Adjournment this evening, having allowed me to raise another matter on the Adjournment on Tuesday evening. This is the most difficult incident I have had to raise during my 13 years in this House. I regret that I have to draw public attention in the Dáil to this very sensitive issue. I do so, having discussed the matter fully with the parents and having got their consent. The parents have been angered and frustrated by the situation during the past seven weeks. They are angry at what happened to their children and even more angry at the lack of response from Government agencies, the Department of Health, Education, the Southern Health Board, Bus Éireann, the special school involved and the voluntary group. Parents approached me about five weeks ago making serious allegations about incidents of a sexual and physical nature involving the driver of a private bus funded by Bus Éireann in Cork to transport children to a special school. Although the Southern Health Board was informed of the incidents on the bus the parents were told it would take about eight weeks before the children could be examined, interviewed and assessed. I advised the parents to see a solicitor and within two hours of their solicitor contacting the Garda one of the children was examined by a GP. Prior to meeting me the parents informed the principal of the special school of what had occurred and they had already held fruitless meetings and discussions with Bus Éireann on the matter of bus escorts. The incidents involved children and young people whose ages range between ten and 20. The children suffer from autism, Down's Syndrome and physical impairment and some of them cannot speak. The Garda have been extremely sensitive and cooperative in dealing with the matter but that is where sensitivity and co-operation ended.
Having met the parents I immediately contacted the Department of Education office in Cork who advised me to contact the Department in Dublin. I also contacted the Southern Health Board and requested a meeting between representatives of the Southern Health Board, Bus Éireann, the Department of Education and the voluntary organisation involved in the running of the school, to discuss the provision of escorts on the buses. The meetings were fruitless as all the agencies involved refused to accept responsibility for the provision of escorts on buses. I telephoned the Department of Education exactly two weeks to the day and gave the Minister's Secretary the details of the incident. I was advised it was a matter for the Junior Minister since school transport was under his jurisdiction. I was promised a telephone call from the Office of the Junior Minister the following day but I was not contacted by either the Minister or the Junior Minister's office for 12 days. There was no contact until I was obliged last Tuesday to contact both offices to protest strongly at their failure to respond to my representations. I was told yesterday by the office of the Junior Minister that they would not provide an escort on the bus.
In the discussions in Cork between the parents and the other parties involved an attempt was made to exclude me and it was only at the insistence of the parents that I was able to attend the meeting last Monday night. At that meeting a Bus Éireann representative failed to turn up although there was a representative of the health board and a representative of the voluntary group. The meeting ended in deadlock with the result that people are not using bus transport and most of them are not attending school.
This week the Southern Health Board published a comprehensive review of child care services but it does not show the appalling lack of services in this sensitive area. I hope that by raising this matter here today the parents will get a more sensitive and caring response from the Departments of Health and Education and their request for the provision of an escort on the bus will be granted in line with the recommendations of the Brennan report which recommended that such escorts should be provided.
The parents in this case will release further evidence of the disgraceful way in which they have been treated over the last number of weeks. The problem has been passed from one organisation to another and the parents have been given the run around at this traumatic time. I hope the Minister will respond positively to the needs of the children and the parents in relation to school transport. I thank the Chair for allowing me to raise this appalling incident.
