I refer to the nearest school rule under the school transport scheme which was introduced a number of years ago. It has a particular impact on families living in rural parishes. The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy John Halligan, established a group to deal with the issue but nothing has come of it. I can give an example of the rule's serious impact on people living in rural areas. In my constituency the parish of Gortletteragh is quite large, with 47 townlands. The school is smack in the middle. A number of families live on the periphery and are entitled to a school bus service but not to the school in the parish in which they live. They must travel to the next parish. In fact, some of them have to travel to Drumlish in the next county of Longford, which is totally inappropriate. When the rule was introduced, there was no consideration given to the impact it would have on people living in rural areas. My understanding is that it resulted from a directive or circular from the Department. Can an addendum be attached to it to recognise the situation in rural parishes? Everybody knows that people living in rural Ireland have a particular affinity with their parish. The school in Gortletteragh is holding a meeting next Saturday to discuss the issue. It is a serious problem throughout the country.

The Deputy has made his point.

Will the Minister indicate that he will do something about it rather than push the issue further down the road?

Deputy Eamon Scanlon has a short related question.

I support what Deputy Martin Kenny said. I am aware of the problem. The school transport scheme is based on regulations that were introduced 50 years ago. The system must be re-examined. Owing to the changes in how the distance between the home and the school is measured, children who have been attending schools and are taking the junior and leaving certificate examinations find that they have to move 13 km or 14 km away. It is the wrong time to do it. These children are under enough pressure as it is taking their examinations without having to change schools.

The scheme costs €175 million and provides support for 116,000 children. It has been designed on the basis of eligible children being necessary to define a route for carriage. Those who are not eligible can be carried on a concessionary basis.

It also defines eligible children on the basis of distance to the school, and that is the way it is administered uniformly throughout the country. Any new approach would also have to be administered uniformly across the country. It is not possible for the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, to devise a scheme for Leitrim, Laois or any other county and then say the Government will follow those contours because that would have a knock-on effect on other areas. The all-party approach was tried to determine whether there was an arrangement that could be uniformly applied. That is the basic difficulty. This is a uniform scheme applied nationally.