Once again I find myself raising an example of inadequacies in the approach to education. Tonight, I raise the need to provide additional school transport for pupils who attend Boheshill National School in Glencar, County Kerry.
The Minister of State may not be aware that another national school in the area, Bunglash National School, was closed and that left a number of pupils with no option but to attend Boheshill National School, which is quite a distance from their homes. When the Bunglash school closed, however, no replacement bus service was provided to ferry the pupils to their new school. The excuse given by the Department of Education and Science for the failure to provide a replacement bus service was that because Bunglash National School was closed rather than amalgamated with Boheshill National School, pupils of Bunglash were not to be provided with transport to their new school.
There is one pupil who walks a mile and a half to the school bus pick-up point every day, often in very bad weather, and then she has to travel a further seven miles on the bus. This is an unacceptable and unnecessary imposition on this young child. The road she walks is very dangerous and remote. In the winter many of the houses are unoccupied and the parents are concerned about the safety of their children. There are other five year olds due to start in September and it is unacceptable that they should have to walk this road to the bus pick-up point.
The location of the pick-up point for these students is very dangerous. It is at the bottom of a hill on an extremely narrow road. The parents of these children want the Department to examine the possibility of providing a school bus from the old closed school. There is a suitable turning circle there that would facilitate the bus. From my dealings with the Department of Education and Science over the years, I understand that when an amalgamation takes place, there are negotiations with regard to the continuation of a bus service. In this case, however, because the school was closed, it did not happen.
I will not labour the point but I ask the Minister of State to ask a Department official to meet the parents of these young children to see if the situation could be examined. We have until September but the parents have asked me to raise the issue tonight so there will be time for negotiations with the Department of Education and Science.
