School Transport
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-10
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

It is great to be here with the students from UCC as well. I welcome them. It is great to be with Cork people when we are in the Chambers in Dublin - a little bit of support from them.
I take the Senator's point on the co-ordinator. I would be reluctant to have some external body co-ordinating a number of schools but I take the point in relation to specific co-ordinators within schools because in special schools and special classes, that often falls to the deputy principal. It is something that has been raised continuously with the Department. From my engagement with the special schools in my area over a long number of years, I know the concerns they have and some have a number of buses for students from special classes. I understand the challenge that is there.
There are two issues related to what the Senator has raised with me. The first is to make sure that the benefits are given to the school bus escorts in a speedier time. That is something that we will engage with the Department of Social Protection on. I do not absolve myself from any responsibility, it is under our remit, and it is about a whole-of-government approach. We have to have a whole-of-government approach right across the sectors to make sure we are not just ticking boxes. I accept that fully but I make the point that we have to engage with them. While it is not something that is directly under my remit, I will certainly do that.
On co-ordination, I do not have any issue with exploring co-ordination within individual schools. Sometimes we see the interaction with the various semi-State bodies, such as Bus Éireann or others, and we are informed that someone else has to complete that application and then it is back for another application. I am not sure that we should look at putting in a third application or something else. We need to simply all of the services that are around special schools and special classes to make it simpler and take out the bureaucracy as much as possible. However, I do take the Senator's points on board.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10