I have previously raised the issue of the 100X route with the Minister. This is the Expressway service from Dundalk to Dublin and obviously back again. For many people it is the means by which to get to and from Dublin Airport. Some issues we bring up here have an impact on and relate to many people. In the period since I brought this up previously, I have been inundated. I acknowledge politicians are very good at using the word "inundated", and sometimes inundated means two Facebook messages. However, whether it is on the doors or people who have emailed my office with specific issues on the 100X, it is a big deal. I am hoping that the answer the Minister will give me will be positive to a degree. The initial issue that we were dealing with was last-minute cancellations. On the previous occasion I raised this matter, I told the Minister that there had been two cancellations that morning, affecting the 6.30 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. services. That was only notified on the website just after 7 o'clock. Obviously, that system does not work for anybody.

My understanding is that eight LE double-decker buses are available for the route but that at times, up to five of them have been in the garage out of action. While I accept that the buses used for the National Transport Authority, NTA, for public service obligation, PSO, services are absolutely separate, sometimes they were lying there when there was no bus available. My understanding is that things have changed since I initially brought this up, in the sense that private contractors are being brought in to make up for the shortfall. However, I am told that there is an issue with these buses. I believe they had been operating in Donegal, some of them are more than 12 years old with more than 1 million km on the clock and they are just breaking down. That is something we definitely need to deal with.

I understand that the Minister does not direct Bus Éireann's individual operations. Many people who have brought up their individual issues have said that it can sometimes be an incredibly busy bus service even when it is there. A number of people told me their difficulty was that it was not there, whether that was leaving Dundalk heading for Dublin or whether it was people trying to get on at the airport. People will always talk about how busy a service is and how difficult it is to get on. It is an issue I have brought up previously. An element of streamlining probably needs to happen across the board.

I do not think we will be able to deal here with whether there should be a direct service because this is a service that goes through Drogheda and is used by very many people in Drogheda commuting to Dublin. We need to work out how to provide that complete service for all those people who use it. The Minister more than anyone will talk about the benefits of a public service and having buses available to take people out of their cars. We know about the issues with parking at Dublin Airport. This is just a service and we need to make sure that it operates as best it can.

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for raising this important topic. From the outset, I must clarify that while, as Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding for public transport, neither I nor my officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services.

The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public transport services nationally rests with the NTA. The NTA works with the public transport operators, which deliver the services and have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters. That said, I reassure the Deputy that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options. Public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2024 the Department of Transport secured €613.463 million of funding for public transport services and TFI Local Link services. This includes funding for the continuation of the 20% fare reduction on PSO services, the young adult card on both PSO and commercial bus services, and the 90-minute fare until the end of 2024. Funding has also been secured to support new and enhanced bus and rail services this year.

As the Deputy will be aware, while the majority of public transport in Ireland is provided by the publicly subvented bus and rail services funded through the NTA’s PSO programme, the public transport system also includes non-subvented bus services provided on a commercial basis by bus and coach businesses of varying size.

These commercial bus and coach operators are an integral part of the overall public transport system in Ireland and play a pivotal role particularly in areas around the country that are not covered by existing public bus and rail services.

One such commercial service is the 100X route from Dundalk to Merrion Square, which is operated by Bus Éireann’s Expressway business. As I am sure the Deputy will appreciate, Bus Éireann Expressway, is a fully commercial entity, which does not form part of the PSO network, and like all other commercial businesses, is responsible for managing its own resources in respect of its commercial services.

I have been advised that to date in 2024, 99.8% of Route 100X Expressway services have operated fully. However, I understand that between 17 May and 20 May, of 152 scheduled services, 97% or 146 of these services operated to schedule. I understand that a notification of the six service cancellations over this period was placed on the Bus Éireann website and that passengers with pre-booked tickets also received a direct communication from Expressway via email. I have been further advised that Bus Éireann has been experiencing a higher than usual number of vehicle breakdowns in its fleet recently and it is unfortunately having an impact on its ability to operate services to schedule, including on the 100X route.

Like other operators in the industry, Bus Éireann is facing significant challenges in the recruitment of both drivers and mechanics. The fleet is primarily maintained by Bus Éireann’s own maintenance department, which unfortunately has been impacted due to the ongoing shortfall of mechanics. Bus Éireann’s current headcount for craftworkers and mechanics stands at 154, which represents a shortage of 12 nationally and five at the Dublin Broadstone garage.

I understand that Bus Éireann is exploring all viable options to ensure improved service delivery across the Expressway network and that the company is making every effort to fill these key positions as quickly as possible. The company continually runs comprehensive mechanic recruitment campaigns, attends numerous jobs expos and partners with various groups such as education and training boards and business in the community to attract new recruits. It is hoped that these efforts will result in an increase in mechanic numbers at the company shortly.

When I raised the issue before, my supplementary question related to the recruitment of mechanics for bus services. That is something that definitely needs to be addressed. I understand that Expressway is a commercial operation but if we are talking about trying to get people out of cars and making sure we are not putting undue pressure on car park services in the airport, we need to make sure that Bus Éireann, which at least has an interaction with the Minister, has a sustainable service.

A big part of this is ensuring it has vehicles that are fit for purpose. There seems to be an issue. The Minister referred to breakdowns, so I imagine there is a need to review the condition of Bus Éireann's vehicle stock. What I have been told about the poor state of some of these vehicles is frightening. For the want of a better term, some of them are on their last legs, which means they are going to be in the garage more often, with the obvious issues the Minister spoke about previously. The big issue here is that this service is used by a lot of people to get to and from the airport and cancellations are causing a huge amount of stress to them. If people cannot rely on the service, they will get back in their cars. We must ensure that does not happen.

The Minister referred to the period between 17 May and 20 May. I am working on the basis that Bus Éireann has made up for the shortfall in its own vehicles by taking on private contractors to fill the space. It is that issue, as well as the question of what conversation the Minister will have with Bus Éireann to make sure we do not end up with what is happening at present.

I thank the Deputy.

If we want more people on buses, we must provide the service. We all know the environmental benefits but we also know all the other benefits that can be provided.

The Deputy's time has elapsed. I call on the Minister to respond.

It is true. We have a direct relationship with Bus Éireann and even though these are commercially operated services, I have met Stephen Kent, the chief executive, and the chair on numerous occasions in recent weeks at various events. It is important to keep in touch with what is a real issue, namely, the ability of the company to get drivers and mechanics. We must ensure that we can deliver on that, as well as new bus services and new buses. We must make sure that we have the very best modern fleet. I am very confident that Bus Éireann will deliver the target. We want 100% reliability.

As well as getting mechanics and drivers, one of the other pressures is based on success. In 2019, Bus Éireann had something like 89 million passengers. They were pre-Covid numbers, but it is up on that and last year I think it was 106 million. There has been a 20% growth in passenger numbers. In other jurisdictions, no one is seeing such a high increase beyond pre-Covid numbers. That is also driving demand. There is significant investment going into the company, which has 3,000 employees in total. There has been a major increase in the company's size. There has been very significant investment. One of the times I met Mr. Kent and the chair was at the major development in Limerick where we have just put in a massive new investment in a bus station and a new electrified bus fleet. I was in Cork last week where we do have real issues, similarly talking to the company. We need to improve the Cork service. Obviously, we also need to make sure that the commercial services are running efficiently, effectively and fast.

I am not aware of any problems with a particular bus. The key constraint is the availability of mechanics rather than the characteristics of any one bus. The company has flexibility and the capability of drawing in private contractors to help. To be honest, the private contractors have similar constraints with bus drivers and mechanics. It is a function of a flat-out economy. There is a need for us to engage in the recruitment of new mechanics. The company is doing that at full speed.

I appreciate the Minister being here. I think this is an area where a bit of innovation could get us a long way. I saw the Minister was in Noonan's Road recently. I was glad to see that. I hope Government funding for that project will remain strong.

The Minister is familiar with Cork and he may be familiar with the greater Douglas area. It is an area that has seen enormous growth in the past 20 years or so. There is a very large young population in the locality and that has had a big impact on the schools. It was difficult to know how to word the matter I raised in order to get the right response but I hope the Minister will understand what I say. The issue first came up in the context of BusConnects when a number of residents identified the number of cars that were on the road because of school runs.

In the submission I made in October 2022, I made the point that the concentration of schools in the locality is significant and I asked whether it would be worth considering if the wider Douglas-Ballinlough-Turners Cross area could be served by a specific school system on the basis that it might be an alternative fix for the Douglas Road. What we are not talking about is the current school bus system run by the Department of Education where a tender is provided. Neither are we talking about the city services operated by Bus Éireann. I believe there is a need for is a timetabled service to service all of the schools in the Douglas area. We have a particular increase in demand in the morning and evening that would not be reflected during the course of the day. We could not possibly justify additional Bus Éireann services throughout the course of the day. I do not think a single bus connected to an individual school would offer the advantage that combining these schools in a number of routes potentially offers.

I will just give the Minister a sense of it. In a little over 2 km, along a route from Douglas village to Capwell Road, which is a straight line, there are four secondary schools, namely, Douglas Community School, Regina Mundi College, Christ King Girls’ Secondary School and Coláiste Chríost Rí. That amounts to 2,358 students. Going on the census information, while not all students, the vast majority of them are being brought to school in their car. There is great potential if we were able to create a number of routes that might go perhaps three times in the morning between 7.30 a.m. and 8 a.m. One that might start in Maryborough Mount Oval; one that might start at the top of Donnybrook Hill; and one that might start at Frankfield – all coming into the village, taking an enormous number of cars off the road and a reasonable proportion of those young people into the village. That is even before we include the potential for some of the older kids in primary schools, for example, in Gaelscoil na Dúglaise, St. Columba's boys school, St. Columba's girls school, St. Luke's School and Bunscoil Chríost Rí. These schools are all along the same route but would perhaps extend the route slightly further to 2.8 km, and would add another 1,846 students. Altogether, that is 4,204 young people attending school in a very tight area. If we wanted to go a small bit further, there is Scoil Niocláis, Grange, with another 779 students.

I will outline how I imagine this would work. I do not think the National Transport Authority, NTA, has the flexibility to do it at the minute but if it was given the permission and the flexibility to do this, it might be in a position to talk to the schools, identify where their children are coming from, and plan routes that would serve the group of schools that are highly concentrated, and potentially reduce enormously the emissions, traffic, parking and safety issues that can go with the huge congestion caused by cars at the school gates. It is worth considering. It is a new approach that does not exist anywhere currently to my knowledge, but it is well worth considering given the circumstances in the locality.

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire. As he is aware, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding for public transport, which means that neither I nor my officials are involved in the planning of public transport services, such as those referred to by the Deputy. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public transport services rests with the NTA, which works with the public transport operators, for example Bus Éireann in the Douglas area, which deliver the services and have responsibility for day-to-day operations.

That said, from a policy and funding perspective, I assure the Deputy that I am strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal.

To support this objective, a funding package of €613 million has been secured for the public service obligation, PSO, and Local Link services. This package includes funding for the continuation of the 20% fare reduction on PSO services, the extension of the young adult card on both PSO and commercial bus services to include 24- and 25-year-olds, and the continuation of the 90-minute fare until the end of this year. Funding has also been secured to support the continued roll-out of new and enhanced bus and rail services this year.

In Cork, Bus Éireann is working with the NTA to examine what steps can be taken to improve service provision in the city and counter the impact of issues such as traffic congestion. The NTA has advised my Department that work is currently ongoing with BusConnects Cork, including the commencement of preliminary design work for core bus corridors in Cork. Significant improvements are being made to the bus network in Douglas, including a new orbital route 14, running from Cork University Hospital to Little Island via Douglas, and a new route 46 to Passage via Carrigmahon, and enhancements to service on other alignments.

According to the NTA, this will give excellent accessibility to and from schools in and around the area, while also providing benefits to a wide range of other users. School demand will be taken into account when setting timetables and capacity. To be clear, in line with its public transport remit, the NTA has no plans to operate a dedicated school service in the area. It is the Department of Education which has responsibility for the school transport scheme.

I reiterate that I am strongly committed to improving public transport services throughout the country and to piloting new transport initiatives for people of all ages and abilities, including students. This is especially important to effect a modal shift from the private car to public transport to meet our climate and sustainable development targets. The Deputy might be interested to learn that my Department and the Department of Education are currently investigating the potential for better integration between the existing school transport scheme and public transport services in rural Ireland. This also aligns with the recommendations contained with the school transport scheme review around the integration of public and school transport to meet our climate action plan targets. The ultimate aim is to support a co-ordinated delivery of services and to maximise the number of sustainable trips to and from the schools. A steering group comprised of my Department, the Department of Education, the NTA and Bus Éireann is currently finalising potential locations for these integration pilots. In conclusion, I wish to reassure the Deputy that the Department of Transport, the NTA and the operators are working to ensure the optimised deployment of resources across the public transport network to match changing passenger demand patterns, including in the Douglas area of Cork city.

The key sentence in the Minister's response is:

To be clear, in line with public transport remit, the NTA has no plans to operate a dedicated school service in the area. It is the Department of Education which has responsibility for the school transport scheme.

That is the problem which prevents something like this happening. No one really has the flexibility, the interest or the ability to do so. While the scheme would be better off in the Department of Transport, that is another day of work. The Department of Education runs a scheme in which it tenders and creates a route for a school, if it has enough children who require school transport, according to where those children live and so on. That is not going to meet the needs that are being outlined here. It will not operate that significant shift. A lot of these children would not qualify because they are too close to the school or it might not be the nearest school. I have just identified that there are four schools in a quick run. It might not even be the second-nearest school even though it might be within 2.5 km of where they live, for whatever reason. I believe the NTA would conceivably be interested in something like this but it does not actually have the ability to do so.

The Minister said that the NTA has no plans to operate a dedicated school service in the area. We are talking about creating a timetabled service that would serve a suburb, including several of the schools, at a time of major increased demand. This can be seen already in the Bus Éireann services but they are not as responsive to the particular need that arises early in the morning and in the late afternoon as the schools close. They are not as responsive to that need as they should or could be. Consequently, people are being brought to school in their cars.

There is huge potential here. I am looking for the Minister to encourage the NTA and to say to it that it has a bit of flexibility and scope to explore this with the stakeholders, which are primarily the particular schools, obviously, to see whether something is possible. The Department of Education is not going to do this. I do not believe it even has the option to potentially explore this. It is only the NTA. This is about a timetabled service that would operate in an area, rather than directly to schools. I ask the Minister to give the NTA flexibility to explore this with the stakeholders as something significant is possible here.

I am familiar with the problem. I was in Douglas last Friday, as it happens. The Deputy is right; a large amount of the morning rush-hour traffic is children being driven to school. People see the difference between the summer period when the schools are not open and the winter period. It makes a dramatic difference. If that 20% or 30% of school traffic can be taken out, it frees up the traffic for everyone and is better for the kids and the families. Absolutely, we need to provide better services.

As well as the new 14 and 46 bus services, there are, of course, the 206 and 207 routes serving Douglas as well. I was talking to Bus Éireann last week specifically about Cork bus services. Going back to when we had the earlier debate, we have an issue. We are looking to recruit 50 additional drivers in Cork and additional mechanics as well. However, the real problem in Cork is that our buses are getting stuck in traffic. A regular scheduled Bus Éireann Cork city service may serve a lot of these schools' needs. You would try to ensure the timetable is rostered so that you are picking up when that demand is at its highest. The biggest problem in Cork is that our buses are stuck in traffic. No matter how many drivers or mechanics there are, if the bus is stuck sitting in gridlock, then the whole service will not work.

The most important thing we need to do in Cork, in my mind, is deliver the BusConnects project. My sense is that it has broad support now. There was a lot of opposition in Douglas to one of the routes but my sense is that it has broad support. As I was saying at the Oireachtas environment committee yesterday, we have to be very quick because, at this point of consensus, we could lose it if we are waiting another two or three years for further consultation, assessment, planning or development, as has happened in Dublin where there was too long of a gap between the original proposal and the delivery. That is the most important development. The Deputy is right; if the Department of Education was to step up and say that it wants a new route here, that would be its business. I would very much welcome it but I do not expect it. I expect us to improve the quality of bus service for everyone in Cork and in doing so, provide a service for these schools as well.

I thank the office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue, as well as the Minister for being here this morning to debate this with me.

When I was elected here for the first time 27 years ago, when I was a lot younger with a lot more hair, the big campaign in east Cork was about opening the railway line to Midleton and I got involved in that campaign. I raised the issue a lot here and I debated it with the then Ministers, Mary O'Rourke and Noel Dempsey, and others. Nearly 15 years ago, on 30 July 2009, it finally opened and it has been a massive success.

The Minister, as he said himself, was in Cork at the weekend and on Monday or perhaps Friday; I cannot remember as things are moving so fast. It was about another enhancement of the rail network. At the time, there was a trade-off between the county council and the Department of Transport, as it was then, with respect to the fact that we needed people to use rail. There was an agreement made to zone a lot of housing along the rail line in Midleton and Carrigtwohill and so forth in order that people would use it and it would have a critical mass. That has now happened.

We have now, for instance, planning permission in Water-rock for 2,500 units. A large town in its own right will be going in there. The problem is the road infrastructure between Carrigtwohill and Midleton. That 5 km infrastructure has not improved. It is very poor and of very low quality. I am worried about the safety side of it more than anything else. I am told that there are up to 30,000 vehicles travelling that road every day at 100 km/h. It is a double dual carriageway. One can imagine trying to get onto that. There are a number of low standard-grade junctions, median crossings and direct-access points going on to that road. At peak times, it is bumper to bumper with two lanes going at speeds of 100 km/h. We are all extremely concerned there is going to be a major smash someday and people will be killed or whatever. It is only waiting to happen. Everybody I meet down there is talking about it. It is extremely dangerous. I invite the Minister to come down and drive that road at some stage to see exactly what I am talking about. There are places on the carriageway, for instance, where traffic comes from roads on the left and there is no space at all. There are three lanes merging into two and they are all moving extremely quickly. There have been a number of accidents in the past. Pedestrians have been knocked down as well. It is not safe for vulnerable users.

In the past, there were plans by the TII and the county council to upgrade the road between Carrigtwohill and Midleton. Phase 1 feasibility studies were completed in July 2020. Other potential routes were identified and the preferred option was outlined in July 2021 to September 2021. Way back then, we expected that length of road to be upgraded and to be made safe. It has not happened. We are going to have even more traffic if all these houses go ahead as planned and I know they will. I have looked at some of the planning applications for housing for that area. The experts are saying on those planning applications that the road is already at capacity. The roundabouts are at capacity and the Lake View roundabout in Midleton is at over capacity. It is extraordinarily dangerous. It is a signal and a sign of success for east Cork.

I am sure my colleague, Deputy O'Connor, who has taken the Chair, will agree with me. It is a sign of success. The rail link has been a game-changer. The greenway that recently opened is another game-changer. It is a great place to live, to work and to raise a family but this little bit of infrastructure really needs to be done as soon as possible.

I have no skin in the game. I am out of here after the next election, but I am really concerned. I do not want to be going to funerals in east Cork because of this lack of progress on this road. The Minister should at least try and make it safe. I am not sure how that could be done because the volume of traffic is not going down. We all want more people to use the train - I more than anybody. I use it all the time. However, an increased number of cars, and hopefully electric cars, are still on that road travelling at high speeds and other traffic trying to merge into it. The medians across it are absolutely lethal but they cannot be closed because that would force more traffic into Carrigtwohill and back into Midleton again. The old Amgen site, one of the best IDA Ireland sites in the country, is sitting there and cannot be used because the road infrastructure has not been upgraded. There are good reasons for the Minister at this stage in the budgetary cycle to get some funding to get this project moving again and I implore him, from the point of view of safety, if nothing else, to get working on this as soon as possible.

I thank the Deputy.

My Department has responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding relating to the national road programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, under the Roads Acts, 1993 to 2015, and in line with the national development plan, the planning, design, improvement and upgrading of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TII ultimately delivers the national roads programme in line with Project Ireland 2040, the national planning framework and the national development plan.

The Government has earmarked €5.1 billion for capital spending on new national road projects from 2021 to 2030, inclusive, as part of the national development plan, NDP. This funding will enable improved regional accessibility across the country as well as compact growth, which are key national strategic outcomes. The funding will provide for the development of numerous national road projects, including the completion of projects that are already at construction stage and those close to it, as well as the development of a number of others.

As the greater portion of this funding becomes available in the second half of the decade, this has meant that there is a constraint on the funding available for new projects in 2024. However, approximately €411 million of Exchequer capital funds were provided for national roads through TII to local authorities this year.

Since 2020, approximately €320 million in Exchequer capital funding has been allocated for the national road network in Cork, county and city. This has contributed to the substantial work that has taken place on the national road network in County Cork, as demonstrated with the recently completed upgrade of the Dunkettle Interchange, and the N22 Ballyvourney-to-Macroom project, which was completed late last year.

The N25 Carrigtwohill-to-Midleton project is one of a number of new national roads projects in Cork that were included in the NDP. In 2024, almost €56 million in Exchequer funding was allocated to Cork County Council through TII. This will be used to fund a number of new roads projects, including the M28 project between Cork and Ringaskiddy, which will improve freight access to the port and allow for the redevelopment of lands in the city. In addition, funding has been provided for the Mallow relief road and the N25 Castlemartyr and Killeagh bypasses. This will remove through traffic from town and village centres, improving the lives of local residents and reducing journey times. Furthermore, development of the N-M20 project between Cork and Limerick is ongoing, and a preliminary business case is expected to be presented in the coming months. This project would provide increased opportunities for developing the Atlantic economic corridor. It would also benefit a number of towns and villages in Cork, including Charleville, Buttevant and Mallow. Funding is also provided for the protection and renewal of the national road network in the county.

With regard to the current status of the N25 Carrigtwohill-to-Midleton project, technical advisers have completed their assessments of the route options and have determined the preferred solution. Improvements to crossings over this very busy section of the N25 to enhance active travel are being considered as part of the scheme. The project did not receive funding in 2024 but as with all national roads projects in the NDP, the delivery programme for this project will be kept under review for 2025 and future years, and considered in terms of the overall funding envelope available to TII. The project remains very much part of the national development plan.

I thank the Minister for his response and for the work that he is doing in his Department and that TII and Cork County Council are doing as well.

I note the point that it is still part of the National Development Plan 2018-2027 and it is also part of Project Ireland 2040.

I also want to point out that a lot of work has been done on this 5 km route. As the Minister said, the preferred option has been identified and publicised. However, the real issue here is the safety of that particular roadway. The only way to make it safe is to follow through on the plans that TII and Cork County Council had developed to a fair extent by identifying the preferred option route. Will the Minister, when he is discussing the review for 2025 and beyond, have another look at this particular route?

My primary concern is saving lives. I am sure the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will agree with me as well. My own heart has been in my mouth on a few occasions on that route when I have seen what is going on. I have had a number of escapes and I know of cases where there have been accidents with older people trying to get onto that road with traffic travelling on it at 100 km/h, bumper to bumper. It is extremely dangerous. I do not want to be standing up here in a few weeks or seeing another Member standing up here bemoaning the fact that we did not take action to make it safe, apart from the fact that it can constrain economic development as well with the old Amgen site sitting there for all those years when it cannot be used.

I laud the fact that the N25 Castlemartyr-to-Killeagh bypass is getting funding and is going ahead. That is badly needed. The Mallow relief road needs further funding. I have had that debate previously.

However, I call on the Minister to have a serious look at the N25 between Midleton and Carrigtwohill. The volume of housing that has been planned for the area is dramatic and, thankfully, it is happening, not only in Midleton but in all the villages in east Cork. Everywhere I go, there are more housing estates being built as we speak.

People want to live there but they have to travel on that section of roadway. Not only is the surface very poor, but, as I stated earlier, there are medians across the carriageway. That means that people are crossing four lanes of traffic going at 100 km/h. It is bonkers. As far as I can see, there is no way of making it safe and maintaining the level of service we need.

Finally, the Lake View Roundabout at Midleton really needs attention. I call for something such as a flyover on that because we will see a smash there also. I hope I am wrong but, inevitably, it is going to happen.

Lives are at risk here. I call on the Minister to use his good offices to make this work happen as soon as possible.

I happened to be in Cork at the end of last week and was on the road. The Deputy is right. It is not up to the standard for safety that we want and we have to do everything to try and improve the safety standards on the roads.

The reality is we have a series of projects. I mentioned the Castlemartyr-Killeagh bypasses. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach mentioned to me last week that there were very serious incidents at both locations in recent weeks and our thoughts go to all the families of those involved. Deputy Stanton also mentioned the Mallow bypass.

I have to be upfront and honest. I have said clearly at every stage that the priority should be such bypasses because there are very high volumes of traffic on these roads. The basic point is accepted. These are roads with very heavy traffic. That is all the more reason we would say in the case of Castlemartyr-Killeagh or Mallow that we have to free up those towns and villages as much as we can first but I had said to TII that this should not stop us examining safety issues, particularly on sections where there is concern as there may be a high record of incidents or accidents, etc. As an interim solution, while we are looking for the longer term big investment, we need to consider average speed camera systems to try to reduce speeding if weather conditions or other traffic volumes or whatever generate concern. What the officials are starting to do, and we provided additional funding this year, is to look, as the Deputy said, at the risk on roads like these, which is where the entry points onto them are not designed to the standard that we would do if we were to do it today. By all means, with safety coming first, I will encourage TII to look at that specific road section to see what can we do on an interim basis.

I visited Cobh as well as being in other parts. The Deputy has mentioned the Belvelly bridge to me on many occasions. There is a real issue on that, at Cobh. Much of that traffic feeds onto this section of road. There is that as well. It is not an easy one to solve. Looking at it, I am scratching my head and thinking, "How do you manage that?".

Lastly, what we launched in Cork last week is hugely significant for Carrigtwohill, Glounthaune, Midleton, and for all the new stations, such as Ballynoe near Cobh and Water-rock, that will go into that very area.

These will facilitate new housing, development and expansion and a sustainable solution. Those morning trains are packed at the moment and those two-carriage diesels sets are jammed. As soon as we put in the new services and go to a ten-minute service there, that will take a great deal of traffic off the road and it is part of the solution.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach; he is looking good in the Chair. I also thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue.

Primary schools principals right throughout Ireland are screaming in an effort to retain their special education teacher, SET, allocations. The new criteria are flawed and are not working. I know this because schools throughout my constituency are having their SET allocations cut.

I want to give the Minister of State a few examples of what is happening out there. In Caheragh National School, the teachers and staff go above and beyond for their students. They had 22.5 hours of SET allocation and have been cut to 20 hours. It should be borne in mind that the school has already had to battle for a special needs assistant, SNA, allocation. Why is everything a battle when it comes to these schools getting the most basic services for the most vulnerable children in them? Their allocation has been cut because they are too good at what they do and because they have improved their literacy and numeracy profiles. They have done exactly what they set out to do, what was asked of them and what those pupils needed. They are essentially being punished for it with a reduction in SET hours.

Leap National School had 22 hours and 20 minutes of SET allocation. It has been cut to 17.5 hours. Again, this is a school that does not have DEIS status but provides such an essential service to children who, in some instances, are at an educational disadvantage.

Why is this happening? This country is supposed to be flush with money. Surely the last thing that should be done is cut hours for essential special education for those students who most need it. I come back to my essential point, which is that the criteria for SET are flawed. They are flawed because the allocation is based in the first instance on enrolment in the school, second, on the school's numeracy profile and, third, on the school's literacy profile. It completely ignores and does not take into account the complex needs of the school and the number of students with complex needs within the school. This is absolutely crazy and is why 730 principals nationwide have signed a petition to return the assessment of complex needs as an assessment when assessing SET allocations.

It absolutely has to happen and I will give a further example. There can be a school with 50 students with the same numeracy and literacy profile. Five miles over the road there can be another school with the same number of students, 50, with the same numeracy and literacy profile but one school might have two students with complex needs and the other might have five students with such needs, and they get the exact same SET allocation. That is not right; that does not make sense. Teachers, principals and other staff dedicate their lives and every hour to ensuring that their students get the best education they can but they are frustrated and they need help. No school at this point should experience a reduction in SET hours. We must remember that these are the most vulnerable children in our society and this is a particular issue throughout rural Ireland.

There can be one school with DEIS status, which receives all these allocations, services and extra support whereas another school in another village up the road, with a very similar profile will not get those supports. This absolutely needs to change and I making this plea to the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. I am sure that this message will get passed on to her on this issue. We need to see a return of assessment of complex needs. It is absolutely ridiculous that any school has had its SET hours cut when it has improved its literacy and numeracy, and this needs to be reversed.

I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of my colleague Deputy Naughton, the Minister of State at the Department of Education. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which has been raised at different levels in every constituency. The Deputy has highlighted two schools in his constituency in west Cork and he made the point very clearly. I want to respond as best I can without having the specifics of the particular schools mentioned by him in the few minutes to hand.

There will be more special education teachers in our schools in September 2024 than ever before with an increase of 1,000 from when this Government was formed. This is in addition to a significant reduction in class sizes at primary level over the budgets, where the pupil-teacher ratio at primary level is now 23:1; it used to be substantially higher. This means children with special educational needs in our mainstream schools are better supported now to meet their needs because of this reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio.

In addition, the model will be run annually in line with general teacher allocations. This allows schools to better plan their staffing structures and gives them time to arrange clusters in areas where schools share a special education teacher. That is very relevant in rural areas and constituencies such as the Deputy's where schools can co-operate, work together and have advance information on that issue.

I would like to clarify that the SET model is an allocation model to provide schools with additional teaching hours to support the needs of their students. When the 2017 model was introduced, it replaced at that stage a diagnosis-led model with one based on need. Perhaps the Deputy is suggesting that we need to go back some way to that model. This has not changed for 2024 and it has been the same consistent approach over the past number of years.

There has been a limited change to the method used to calculate SETs for mainstream classes. The Department of Education commenced a review of the model in late 2022 to ensure it was meeting the changing needs in special education. This review involved extensive consultation and visits to schools by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and took the strengths and shortcomings of the allocation model into account. This feedback has been incorporated into the revised model for the upcoming school year, 2024-25.

The allocation model for 2024-25 distributes the total available number of special education teaching posts in line with each school’s profile of need. The model makes an allocation based on the number of inputs, including enrolment numbers, as the Deputy said. It also uses school-level data from standardised tests to reflect the level of overall need and complex need within a school. Obviously, if there are positive developments within a school, and if greater literacy and numeracy has been achieved within the school, I can understand the point being made by the Deputy, which is that the school will not score highly within that needs model in subsequent years, having achieved that improved level. What the Deputy is actually saying in layman's English is that some schools are being penalised because of their success or at least that is my interpretation of what he is saying.

This model seeks to distribute the number of teaching resources in the fairest way. Schools have autonomy to decide how best to deploy those resources to meet the needs of their individual students. The Department acknowledges that every school is different and there is always a challenge when making allocations in respect of 4,000 schools at national level. For this reason, the Department, working with the NCSE, has streamlined the review process for special education teaching hours and schools that have any concerns can engage with the council on their allocation.

Reviews are being conducted between March and May to better enable schools to plan for the following September. The new streamlined review process was introduced for the forthcoming year's allocation. A school could request a review of their allocation and many have actually done that. A total of 218 review applications have been received and are being processed at the moment and the NCSE has committed that all schools will receive the outcome of the reviews by the end of this month. In cases where this is happening, schools will be able to plan for that particular matter.

I thank the Minister of State. We are hearing that the number of special education teachers has increased and that the allocations are increasing but I am telling him that this is not the reality on the ground. The fundamental point is that schools are being punished for doing their job correctly and for improving numeracy and literacy. We need to go back to taking account of those complex needs.

In my last two minutes of speaking time, I want to raise two very related issues.

One relates to the spaces available in the secondary school in Bantry for children who need to go to an autism or special education class. What we are hearing on the ground is that those spaces are maxed out for 2024, 2025 and even 2026. Children are being sent to places like Skibbereen and Schull, a good 30- to 40-minute journey from Bantry. Will the Minister of State look into that, get some detail on the issue and see if a solution can be found?

On a second issue, the same schools that are facing challenges arising from cuts to special education teaching hours are also facing challenges arising from cuts to the ancillary grant. I appreciate that this does not relate to special education but the ancillary grant has been cut for many schools. That makes sense because secretaries are now included on the payroll but that ancillary grant is very important for caretakers and cleaners and to meet many of the basic costs of running a school. Schools are having to go to people with cap in hand and to raise money for these basic services. The ancillary grant has been cut by so much that these schools are now struggling to pay caretakers and cleaners to keep the school buildings clean and hygienic. I would really appreciate it if the Minister of State could take the message that this is an issue schools are facing back to the Minister for Education.

I will immediately convey what the Deputy has said about Bantry and the issue of the ancillary grant. Like the Deputy, many of the representatives here are hearing about that issue directly from schools in our own particular areas. I will make a few additional points. On the reviews, the model has set allocations for the forthcoming year such that 30% will have no change in their allocation, 37% will see an increase in their allocation and 23% of schools will see a reduction of five hours or less in their allocation. The reduction at the level of individual schools is being driven primarily by changes in demographics and reductions in enrolments, particularly in the primary sector.

On the broader issue, a phased high-level plan has been compiled to further enhance the model over the coming years. This will be based on a number of criteria. One is the development of a revised process for resourcing new schools as obviously there are new schools coming along. Another is a mechanism for the transfer of resources between the primary and post-primary levels based on changing demographics. We are heading into a significant issue at post-primary level. A third criterion is an examination of geographically isolated schools. That may be relevant to some schools in the Deputy's constituency. Another is an examination of the additional data potentially available in schools or other areas within the early years setting, which could support greater sensitivity in the model. That is essentially what the Deputy is asking for. One blanket rule does not always fit all schools. Greater sensitivity is needed on these issues.

As I have said, a number of appeals or reviews have been conducted so far. As a result, a number of schools had their profile re-examined, resulting in an average of 13 extra hours per school. The reviews that have been completed to date have resulted in an average of 13 extra hours per school. Schools will be notified of their allocation by the end of this month.