Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 11 Nov 1999

Vol. 510 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - School Transport.

Mr. Stanton:

I am delighted the Minister has come into the House this evening to debate this issue with me. I raise the issue of the need for escorts on buses which carry children with special needs to and from school. I have raised it in this House on a number of occasions previously. When I raised it initially I was told that the resources could not be made available.

The Minister is from a rural background and I am sure he will empathise with me when I paint the picture of a five, six or seven year old child with special needs getting on a bus early in the morning to travel for almost three quarters of an hour to school. That bus may be carrying many children with special needs. These children are unsupervised and a great deal of messing goes on. They often take off their clothes or pinch each other and arrive at the school in a distressed state. I do not need to go on about this because the argument has been made in the past and, in principle, it has been won.

I acknowledge that last August, the Minister for Education and Science made funding avail able for this school transport, and I thank him on behalf of the parents and children for doing so. There is a problem, however. Whereas the issue has been solved in principle, in practice a problem still exists because most of these school buses do not carry escorts. Because the money was made available extremely late in the day, the teachers in the schools which were expected to administer the scheme were not prepared to administer it, and I understand a number of the cheques were returned. That was last August. We are now into November and the children continue to travel on the buses without escorts.

Who is responsible for these children? Is it the Department of Education and Science, the parents, the bus driver, the bus conductor or the school management? If an incident occurs and one of these children has a seizure or falls out of a bus, who will be responsible? The Minister will appreciate that parents are very concerned and they are anxious that the scheme be set up.

The Minister may correct me if I am wrong but I understand meetings have not been held with the Department officials. Will the Minister take urgent action to resolve whatever misunderstanding exists between the school managements and the Department on this issue. If the school managements are unable or unwilling to administer the scheme – they have enough demands on their time – surely the Department can find the resources so that this urgently needed scheme can be administered through some other agency such as the vocational education committees or the Department itself. I know this is not the Minister's Department but coming from a rural constituency I am sure he understands the urgency. Will he ask his colleagues in Cabinet to do something about this matter before a serious incident or accident occurs.

Mr. O'Donoghue:

The Minister for Education and Science has asked me to apologise to the Deputy and the House for his inability to be here to reply to the motion, and to say how grateful he is to the Deputy for the opportunity to address this issue.

Since his appointment as Minister for Education and Science, he has been faced with demands that funding be made available for the appointment of escorts on special school transport services. From the outset, he has accepted the validity of the concerns of parents and others about the dangers to which special needs children can be exposed when travelling unaccompanied on these services.

In an effort to address this issue, the Minister secured an allocation of £3.4 million to extend the escort scheme to every special school transport route in the country. He also made provision to increase the level of payment per escort from the £3,200 per annum which was paid under the original pilot escort scheme to £4,995. He secured these resources on the basis of the valid concerns which had been put to him by parents and schools.

The Minister also took a view, which he still holds, that the most appropriate people to operate the escort scheme are the schools which are catering for the pupils in question on a daily basis. These schools know their children best. They are familiar with their children's behaviour and are best placed to select the most suitable people to carry out escort duties. The Minister is of the view that the involvement of schools, with their knowledge of the pupils, is crucial to ensuring an effective escort scheme which ensures the safety of the children and provides parents with the reassurance which they require.

The Minister has asked me to assure the Deputy that he is also aware of the concerns and reservations which have been expressed by some schools at taking responsibility for the escort scheme. While he appreciates that these concerns are validly held, he would point out that the pilot escort scheme which has been operating on more than 30 special transport routes for several years has not presented any of the difficulties which are now being raised.

The Minister has also asked me to say that he is pleased that many of the schools involved in catering for special needs children have already confirmed their participation in the escort scheme and are already involved in appointing escorts for the routes serving their schools. Indeed, he asked me to take this opportunity to acknowledge the commitment shown by these schools in co-operating with the introduction of the scheme.

He would like to assure the House that he fully appreciates the extra work involved for schools through their participation in the escort scheme. He also recognises that there may be individual schools for whom the introduction of the scheme presents real practical difficulties. He does not wish to be in any way dismissive of such difficult ies. Far from it, he has already indicated that his Department is prepared to consider any specific difficulties being encountered by individual schools in putting their escort service in place.

The Minister has already had discussions with the national association which represents the boards of management of special schools in relation to this issue. He has asked me to say that he is pleased that the association has been extremely positive in welcoming the funding which has been made available for the introduction of the escort scheme on all special routes and has expressed its wish that all the schools involved should participate.

The Minister has also indicated to the national association that officials of his Department are available to meet with them to discuss possible ways of resolving any difficulties being encountered by particular schools in seeking to put their escort scheme in place. He has asked me to assure the Deputy that his Department will make every effort to accommodate any such difficulties.

Officials of the Department met with representatives of the national association of boards of management in special schools on Tuesday, 9 November in an effort to resolve outstanding issues. At this meeting, the Department was advised of a number of specific concerns on the part of schools catering for special needs children and a number of suggestions to address these concerns were put forward by the association. The Department will now consider these matters in an effort to resolve outstanding difficulties.

The Minister is hopeful that substantial progress can be made on this issue, so that escorts can be put in place on the remaining routes as soon as possible, in the interests of the children concerned and their parents.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 16 November 1999.