May I share my time with Deputy Ring?
Adjournment Debate. - School Transport Service.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I am glad the Minister of State is present. There are two special schools in Castlebar, St. Anthony's and St. Brid's. These schools cater for children from a wide area in County Mayo and deal with a range of disabilities and handicap between the ages of five and 19 years. Transport is provided by nine mini buses under contract to Bus Éireann for 60 pupils from all over the south Mayo catchment area. No bus escorts are provided by the Department of Education and Science. In the case of St. Anthony's, only one child care assistant for the entire school is provided by the Department. One child care attendant acts on a one to one basis and the bus escorts one of the four terminally ill pupils.
Four of the nine mini buses travel on routes where escorts are required because of the nature and personality of the children involved. These are operated by Joe Daly carrying children from the Cong area, Tom Moran carrying children from the Ballyhaunis area, Luke Kavanagh carrying children from the Kilmaine area and Brendan McGing carrying children from the Croagh Patrick-Westport area. No recognition is given even to a blind eight year old restrained with a special harness. I call on the Minister of State to extend the pilot scheme of grant aid to the provision of escorts on certain transport services to cater for these difficult school runs, to do so immediately and thereafter to consider extending it nationwide.
Paragraph 2 of the scheme issued by the Department in December 1994 states: "in order to establish eligibility for support school authorities are required to provide evidence of need for an escort service among the pupils attending the school". Such evidence would relate to the prevalence of pupils whose behaviour is such as to constitute a potential danger to themselves or to others with whom they share a special transport service and the prevalence of pupils whose condition is of such severity as to warrant constant adult supervision while in transit on the special school system.
The following is a list of the categories of pupils catered for in the school: Down's syndrome, 19; cerebral palsy, 13; spina bifida, one; Hunter's syndrome, three — one is now at home; language disorders, 14; autistic tendencies, four; attention deficit disorder, five; hyperactive, seven; asthma, two; socially deprived, eight; blind, one; diabetic, one; coeliac, two; epilepsy, three; sight loss, 20; sight/hearing, seven; eating disorder, one; William's syndrome, one and Ptoses syndrome, one.
Some of these pupils are not capable of looking after themselves in transit to and from school. Many do not have the level of understanding to cope with safety measures, such as the importance of not tampering with the emergency door, windows, switches, etc. Drivers need to concentrate on control of their vehicles without the stress of interruption from passengers. Pupils need help in getting in and out of vehicles, particularly those with poor balance, physical disability and mobility appliances. Because of their hearing and sight loss, they are distractible and lack concentration on their movements.
Because of the failure of the Department of Education and Science to provide escorts, St. Anthony's has trained escorts over a three year period under the FÁS community employment scheme. The work involved travelling on bus routes that were problematic for pupils. The escorts were trained in manual lifting, first aid, harnessing and safety measures, such as coping with epilepsy. Their hours span 19.5 hours per week. They stayed in school during the school hours and learned additional skills. These escorts are now available and are fully trained and experienced to take up position immediately. One of the mini bus operators wrote to me saying that "in the case of another child, he has ripped a speaker from its mounting, torn down notices and thrown objects such as school bags and bottles and in the most serious incident he succeeded in unlocking the emergency door". That is not fair.
At a time when Government coffers are being swelled by £800 million, there should be an extension of the pilot scheme to this school immediately, otherwise we will deprive some of the most beautiful children of their right to an education. For the few pounds involved, it would be scandalous to turn one's back on such experience and expertise.
Deputy Kenny and I tabled the matter on the Adjournment because of the serious situation which pertains in the county. I will not repeat what Deputy Kenny said but the escort service is vital. I understand there is a pilot scheme in Dublin and ask for it be extended to County Mayo. I take this opportunity to compliment the drivers who have brought these children to and from school safely over the years. Recently, there was a tragic accident in another part of the country. I spoke on the radio many weeks before that and I wrote to the Minister saying an accident was waiting to happen in relation to this problem.
Deputy Kenny is right when he says these are special children with special needs. Parents have a difficult time coping with these difficult children. They love them very much and want them to get whatever education is available. Now bus operators are threatening to stop this service from December if escorts are not provided. That would be unfair to the children and the parents, and it is wrong for the Department not to honour its commitment to treat all children equally. These are special cases. The Department of Finance is flush with money and there is a need here for a little of that money. I do not believe a Minister, official or anybody would say this money would not be well spent on the people with these disabilities. There are people in place who were trained under the FÁS scheme and who have worked with those involved for the past number of years. However, the schools will lose a supply of workers because the FÁS scheme is to be terminated. However, at present there are people available to take up the jobs if the Department is prepared to provide the money. We got away with a warning recently. Will the Minister do whatever is necessary to deal with this problem?
I thank Deputy Kenny for the compelling case he made, ably supported by Deputy Ring. I recently became aware of the particular difficulties that have arisen on the school transport service to which the Deputies refer. Child care workers were provided to act as escorts on certain services facilitating St. Anthony's and St. Brid's special schools in Castlebar under a FÁS scheme. A recent reduction in the number of hours under the scheme which resulted in the services being unsupervised for three days per week has created problems.
I understand the situation may be further compounded in December when the FÁS scheme is due to terminate. I am very much aware of the need to extend the existing escort scheme on special school transport services. I am currently giving active consideration to possible measures in this regard. The overall operation of the school transport scheme is constantly under review to ensure the best and safest service is delivered. Bus Éireann, which operates the service on behalf of my Department, places special emphasis on safety and to this end has a wide range of checking procedures in place to ensure a safe and reliable service. However, I am aware difficulties arise from time to time in regard to special needs pupils on some services.
Since 1995 an annual allocation of £150,000 has been provided to fund a pilot scheme of grant aid towards the provision of escorts on certain school transport services. All applications for support under the scheme are carefully considered by my Department. It was decided that the pilot scheme should focus on facilitating the appointment of escorts and services to special schools for children with physical disabilities and providing assistance towards the cost of escorts for pupils attending the special schools for hearing and visually impaired children who travel long distances by bus and train at weekends. These schools are located in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Wicklow.
The Deputies will be aware that the school transport review committee undertook a very comprehensive study of the entire school transport scheme. The committee's report, published in January 1998, was circulated to all relevant and interested parties for their views. The recommendations set out in the report deal with a broad range of transport issues, including the questions of escorts and special services. The report estimates the cost of providing all special transport services will be in the order of £2 million per annum. The content of the report has given rise to extensive debate and a number of responses have been received. These are currently under examination in my Department. The outcome of this consideration will provide the basis for determining future approaches to the question of escorts and school services.
I am aware that the Deputies have raised a number of issues concerning transport provision for special needs children travelling to special schools from the Mayo area. I assure them that the needs of the schools to which they refer will be considered in the context of any proposed expansion of the escort scheme. I realise the magnitude of the problem and undertake to have a careful look at it tomorrow. I will communicate directly with the Deputies.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.05 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 7 October 1998.