I attended a meeting in Abbeyknockmoy, County Galway on Monday night where more than 40 parents represented their children. Twenty-six of their children did not get school bus tickets last year because they were pushed out of the system by a late, ill-thought-out measure that was brought in to try to deal with the cost-of-living crisis by allocating free school bus tickets. Effectively, these families had to rent a private bus, costing them €850 per child for the year. There was no saving for them in the measure.

The meeting was held because the school bus application process is coming to an end and payments have to be made by 9 June, after which ticket allocations will be made to parents. The fear is that there will be many more people on the road trying to get to school even while school buses are not full because the people allocated tickets have not taken them up. People will be driving in cars after these buses to bring their children to school. This is an ill-thought-out way of providing school transport.

The school in Abbeyknockmoy feeds into Holy Rosary College, Mountbellew. All the pupils in sixth class in Newtown National School will attend Mountbellew next year. Will the Department of Education provide the necessary buses to make sure that our children can get to school without their parents having to pay for it? The criteria regarding the nearest and second nearest schools have changed, as has the nature of where people are going to school. We talk about a green economy and taking cars off the road, yet there are parents following along after buses and children standing on the side of the road watching buses they were allowed onto last year passing them by with empty seats. Parents have to pay a great deal of money to get private bus operators to bring their children to school. There is something wrong with this system. Bus Éireann needs the Government's support to ensure that whatever happens this year is done early so that parents know their children have seats on the buses and as many people as possible are accommodated. It is not a mystery. It is just a question of using practical solutions to get people to the schools they want to attend.

This is a matter with which I am familiar; Deputy Cannon has been raising it as well. I am sure he has been attending the same meetings as the Deputy and engaging with parents, pupils and teachers who are concerned about the issue.

I acknowledge the scheme's importance and the valuable role it plays in supporting school access and supporting families. I also acknowledge the importance of the cost of school transport in the context of the cost-of-living challenges that many are facing. While Deputies understandably raise difficulties in moments like this, it is worth pointing out that this is a scheme providing support for 147,900 children the current school year, including 18,000 children with special educational needs, all of whom are transported on a daily basis to their schools. This scheme provides an important, valuable and deserved support to nearly 150,000 children and their families. It is because of this that the Government is committed to continuing the scheme while also ensuring it is available on a sustainable basis.

The measures from last year that the Deputy referred to resulted from a decision to reduce the charge to €50 per student at primary level and €75 per student at post-primary level, with a cap per family of €125.

First, that was an important intervention from the Government to try to help with the cost of living, and with what we know is one of the biggest daily costs in people's lives, which is the cost of transport. It is a cost that can be particularly high for families who depend on transport for school access. As Deputy Canney is aware, the Government is currently carrying out a review of the school transport scheme, but while that review is in place we are doing all we can to ensure that those who are eligible for support for transport under the current scheme have their needs met. I am not in a position, as I am sure Deputy Canney can appreciate, to give him a definitive answer on a particular route, or on particular families. I can just emphasise the support that we have for the scheme overall. Of course, the Government, Deputy Cannon, and other Deputies who are dealing with this issue, will all do what we can to try to get the clarity Deputy Canney is looking for and the answers that, more importantly, families, pupils and schools need, as soon as possible in the year and in advance of the new school year.

Yes, we need clarity as soon as possible. The review on the school bus service that is ongoing was raised at the previous meeting. It has been going on since 2019. Covid intervened, but I do not think Covid is with us any longer, so we need to get that review brought to a conclusion so that we can see what changes we can make.

I acknowledge the fact that the school transport system works to a certain extent, but I think every Deputy in the House knows and has experience of queries last August, September, October, November, December and January from people who previously were getting concessionary tickets and who were refused them last year. The bus was passing them by, where people had not taken up their allocation of tickets and there were seats on the bus. The school transport team on the ground was taking the brunt of the anger from parents about this, which was totally unfair as well. I acknowledge the work they have done, but it is important that we get it right this year to make up for the anomalies and the unintended consequences people suffered last year.

That is a fair point. We put in place those measures to make a much-needed, and I believe much-valued, contribution to families at a time in which the cost of living and the increase in the cost of living was so urgent and causing such hardship. I am aware from Deputies on these benches of the anomaly to which Deputy Canney refers and also of the frustration that many families and pupils felt when they saw school buses go by that were empty and had empty seats on them. This is of course a matter that will be considered in the context of the review that is under way on school transport.

I understand that review had three different phases, because a lot of data needed to be gathered in relation to this and a lot of consultation needed to take place, but I understand it is going to be completed shortly. The final phase of the report is now being carried out and I am sure it will be shared with the Government very shortly.

I will conclude with two points in relation to it. The first one is again to encourage all families who are eligible for school transport under the current system to put in their application so they do not find themselves in difficulty a little later in the year because the application has not gone in.

I thank the Minister.

I emphasise that while this review is under way, we will continue to deliver against all of the commitments on the current scheme. I have no doubt that Bus Éireann and the Department of Education will do all they can to try to resolve individual issues that are developing. I cannot promise that we can resolve all of them, but I know everyone will do their best.