I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for allowing the question to be taken and I thank the Minister for his attendance.
A number of blind children in Donegal travel to two schools in Dublin every week. There are 12 in all, attending St. Mary's in Marino and St. Joseph's in Drumcondra. I ask the Department of Education to provide a minibus to pick up the children on Sunday evenings to take them to Dublin and on Friday evenings to leave them home.
One can understand the dangers for blind children in travelling in an express or private bus from an area like Carndonagh, County Donegal on a 200-mile journey to Busáras where they are collected by the school staff. It causes worry for parents. It might be suggested that the parents accompany the children but it is not possible for some to do that because it involves them leaving for Dublin on Sunday afternoons, arriving in the evening and possibly having to stay overnight. These people cannot afford to stay in Dublin.
The children come from Letterkenny, Carndonagh, Donegal Town and Dungloe. Both the children and the parents are worried about the weekly journey. One has to consider danger of accidents. When they stop at the café in Monaghan no one is available to help them out of the bus to go to the toilet or for a cup of tea. Their clothes or money could be and have been stolen. Some parents are worried the children might be kidnapped. The current court case in England concerning the child of two kidnapped by boys of 11 shows the danger for blind children of six or seven who do not know their way around.
Deaf children from Northern Ireland attend school in Dublin. The education authorities in the North provide a bus which takes them to and from Dublin. The Northern Ireland bus takes two children from Donegal, which means we are not looking after those people adequately.
The Bus Éireann schedule is excellent and the parents are happy that the bus always arrives on time. However, the children are left not in Donegal but in Derry. Given the current problems in Northern Ireland the parents fear the bus could be stoned or hijacked. The children would have no one to take care of them.
If the Minister cannot provide the minibus I call for, I hope consideration will be given to providing an escort to travel with these children to and from Dublin. The EC provides that a companion pass be given to a blind person at 18 years. It seems ridiculous that these vulnerable children should be denied such a pass. To travel on a train a blind child must have an escort and in some circumstances a social worker travels with them. No such provision is made for buses. Blind people appear to be catered for only when they reach 18.
These children are being discriminated against. There is no educational facility for them in Donegal, so they have to go to Dublin. Children going to national school there are given a bus pass but those who are blind and travelling 200 miles do not get a pass. I ask the Department to alleviate the discrimination and do something to help these children.