School placement limits and enrolment criteria have changed in recent years. While this creates discomfort for many parents who, because of lack of choice, have to enrol their child in a school miles away from their home, this is being exacerbated by the fact that the applications for first-time users of the school transport scheme closed over a week ago, on the last Friday of April. Some families are still waiting to hear back from the Department of Education or Tusla regarding their child’s school placement.

If a parent does not know which school their child is going to go to or to be allocated a place in, how can they apply for a specific bus pass? The Government needs to get ahead of these issues, because we know what happened last September. Some students in rural areas of my constituency in the Louth and east Meath area were not given bus passes and, as a result, they were left stranded. The fact is that a lack of appropriate school places and rising demand resulted in a huge number of schools having substantial waiting lists and more than 800 children had to avail of home tuition last year. Additionally, a lack of appropriate planning regarding school transport led to a surge in demand exceeding administrative and bus seat capacity.

One issue is causing another issue. I recently met a young mother who highlighted the issue of school placement and how it has significantly impacted on her son’s mental health. On top of this, her stress levels are increasing because she has now missed the school bus deadline, works full time and has to find a way to get her son to a school potentially miles away.

I am not sure whether the Deputy's contribution related to children with additional needs or to mainstream education for children going to school, but there should be sufficient and appropriate placements for all children attending school and transport should also be available to them. If the Deputy would like to give me the specific circumstances, I can speak to the Minister for Education about it. There are 12 school planning areas in the country and there is a lot of forward planning to make sure schools are available in each county with sufficient placements.