Everybody wants to see those ended but it means proper resourcing for schools.

Additional, from January.

Permanent.

Permanent.

Can the Minister provide a breakdown to the House of the budget 2024 allocation of €50 million for the school transport scheme between capital and revenue, the details of additional capacity this will cater for, and the priority for spending?

We could almost set our watches at this point for when the phones will start ringing and the emails will start coming in with school transport queries. This year was no different. In many ways, it is becoming Groundhog Day. Year in and year out, there are issues with the school transport scheme. While the €50 million is welcome, as would be any investment in school transport, we need to tackle the fundamental flaws in the scheme. It is not only Deputies on this side of the House who are raising this issue. The Mini…

That has not been my experience. I have a case where one brother got a ticket and the other did not. Their mother told me she would be driving behind the school bus. That is not an unusual or unique situation. When parents contact Bus Éireann, they are met by a disregard almost for the query they have and the pressure this scheme puts them under. While I acknowledge the funding that has been provided for the scheme, the issue is with the scheme itself. Instead of repeating the problem, the Government needs to find …

Will the Minister outline to the House where the counselling and well-being service ceases and NEPS steps in? There seems to be a level of confusion, particularly if we look at the budget for 2024. The budget for NEPS last year was €33 million, while this year, in the Minister's budget, it is €9.7 million. That is a considerable drop. Will the Minister outline the impact or how these two entities will interact with each other? Where does well-being and counselling stop and where does NEPS start?

Each and every one of the letters I hold today has come from a user of the services of the Irish Wheelchair Association in Mullingar. They were dropped into my office yesterday by somebody who works with them. I will use their words to describe how they are feeling. The first letter states: I am a person with a disability and rely heavily on my personal assistant from the Irish Wheelchair Association community. This support is diminishing for people like me around the country due to staff leaving and working for th…

For anyone watching yesterday hoping that education would finally have the level of investment needed to adequately address and tackle the years of underfunding, "disappointment" goes nowhere near describing what they have expressed to me. There is frustration and outright bewilderment that, when the State’s coffers are flush with funds, the level of investment in education remains well below our European neighbours. Substantial progress could have been achieved by continuing to reduce class sizes and substantially…

These statements could not come at a more fitting time. The Minister has come to this House and detailed the review that is ongoing and the communication and conversations that have taken place. Two and a half years after that review started it is not the success the Minister seems to think it is. Neither is trying to say that routes have not been cancelled because when children are not on the bus that is all that parents actually care about. All they care about is that their child is on the bus for which they have…

I have raised the issue of the school transport system and the ongoing review previously in this House. Today, I raise the issue of the emerging exceptional no-service interim grant payment, what appears to be yet another sticking plaster on what is rapidly becoming a broken school transport system. These children have applied, have been approved and have paid for a seat on a bus, only for their parents to be told that no bus exists. From the conversations I have had with parents, I know many of them are also child…

They need those places.

A review of the school transport scheme was announced in February 2021. After examining eligibility criteria phase 1 was completed in June 2021 and resulted in temporary alleviation measures for post-primary students attending their second nearest school. These remain in place. Phase 2 of that review was completed late last year. Phase 3 and the final report have not been published and no date has been indicated as to when it will be published. This simply is not good enough. It is vital that the service is expande…

Will the Minister please carry out a review of the reasonable accommodations at certificate examination level? I asked her Department on 16 May what the qualifying criteria for the scheme were and the question was referred to the State Examinations Commission, SEC, for reply. To date, no reply has been received and there is growing concern about the accessibility of this scheme.

I thank the Minister. I am sure the stakeholders will be happy to hear that. However, I feel the need to raise the current issues. The framework of principles for the reasonable accommodations scheme, which the Minister mentioned, states they are designed to assist a candidate in demonstrating their achievements in an exam setting. The Minister is correct that demand for the scheme has increased every year for the past decade, likely due to a greater understanding of additional needs. The Minister spoke about fairn…

The Minister mentioned the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. It recently established an online petition, which was signed by 21,000 individuals, seeking the accommodation of additional time. At the moment, that is not available as standard for students with dyslexia but it is at third level. That creates an unfair situation and an unlevel playing field for those students. In many other countries, that issue of extra time is an established option for dyslexic students at both second and third level to allow them to o…

I am told there was a significant change in the financial support services unit, FSSU, produced grant schedule for the 2022-23 academic year, which led to confusion among primary schools because it changed so frequently throughout the year. We all accept and understand that primary schools, like every other sector, are feeling the effects of the current cost-of-living crisis. They need to be able to plan and budget effectively. This uncertainty regarding the timing and payment of key grants has caused unnecessary f…

I am told it is the changes in the FSSU grant schedule that are causing significant issues for schools. The Covid cleaning support grant was paid in September 2022, followed by the once-off cost-of-living grant in December 2022. That was entirety of moneys received from the Department in term 1, which resulted in some schools running at a deficit. The initial grant schedule stated the minor works and ICT grants would be paid in December, but the Minister said the minor works grant was paid in April. The ICT grant n…

I will go back to the ICT grant for a moment, which was included in the FSSU calendar at the beginning of the past academic year. Schools invested wisely at that point, depending on that grant coming through. The Minister has just told the House and confirmed that grant will not be paid in this academic year. In fact, it will be the next academic year before that grant will be paid. Those schools who made those wise investments and signed up to wise contracts to be able to maintain and invest in the ICT infrastruct…