Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Seanad. The announcement by the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, of free school transport for all was initially greeted by many with great fanfare. The reality on the ground for some communities is entirely different.
It has turned the lives of people living in the communities of Rathcoffey and Straffan upside down. It has caused chaos that is ongoing. There is a single bus service serving these communities that goes to the Maynooth Education Campus. At present, 26 students do not have a place on their own school bus. They had places until that announcement was made, but those places no longer exist because there are not enough seats. People who were on that bus for a number of years were leapfrogged. They were happy to pay the €350 per year, but now there are simply no places on the bus. At a recent public meeting in Friel's of Straffan, there was palpable frustration and dignified anger in the room. Parents want an end to this. They do not want another school year to start with this stress and chaos.
All political parties support the provision of a second bus. That is not to mention the carbon emissions and gridlock being caused. In the Public Gallery we are joined by No Planet B students from another part of County Kildare. They are in solidarity with the students whose lives have been turned upside down by not having a basic service to bring them to and from school safely. The students present, who met senior Ministers this morning, are conscious we could avoid additional carbon emissions. There are simply not enough seats on the bus. The demand clearly justifies two buses, with one serving Straffan and the other Rathcoffey. The demand is growing all the time. The sharp increase in population in Kildare is well-documented. Currently 26 people cannot get on a bus, but we believe next year the figure will well exceed 50. It is going to get worse and worse because many children have accepted places in Maynooth Education Campus this year. This problem will escalate come September.
The difficulty is compounded by the fact that most of the pupils in Straffan and Rathcoffey are not deemed eligible for school bus transport to Maynooth because we are dealing with an obsolete, outdated policy on top of this inadequate bus service. Clane is these pupils' nearest school, but it is full. They have a right to go to Maynooth for whatever reason; it is their prerogative. They may not want same-sex education. It should be a demand-led service. There are 26 students who have been deprived of a bus place they always had and took for granted, and next year this could be 50 to 55 children from Straffan and Rathcoffey. I plead with the Minister of State to try to hammer home this fundamental point. These students are not asking for an awful lot. The situation is utterly unsatisfactory at the moment. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber and look forward to his response.