Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to also be associated with the expressions of sympathy to the Slovak people in respect of the attack on their Prime Minister. We wish him a speedy recovery.

I wish to raise an issue related to school transport. I have a situation where a student only qualifies to go to one school and there are two schools in the town. The schools are very close to each other and a person can walk from one to the other in about five minutes. We have a farcical situation where these students will probably be denied school transport. The parents will drive in and out to the local town, perhaps even collecting the students at lunchtime, and drive in in the morning and again in the afternoon or evening to collect them. We are trying to get cars off the road and, at the same time, we have a school transport system that could bring the students to both schools. The student would then have a choice of which school they want to go to within the same town. I understand a pilot scheme is being rolled out by the Department, and one would question whether there is any great need for it. I welcome the pilot scheme if it is going to be rolled out and I look for one to be done in Castlebar to alleviate the problem we have there. However, I do not think there is any great need for a pilot scheme because it is self-explanatory. It makes common sense to bring kids to both schools in this case. I am sure there are quite a number of similar situations in other towns throughout the country. I propose that the Acting Leader ask the Minister to include Castlebar in the pilot scheme and that it be rolled out fairly quickly.

I also wish to raise an issue related to contracts for primary school teachers. I understand that many primary school teachers are on five-year contracts, which is difficult for them. They have to build a house, settle down and rear a family. They will not get a mortgage if they have a five-year contract. The Catholic Church, which is the patron for many primary schools throughout the country, has bought into these five-year contracts as well. We as public representatives are meeting with the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO, next week but I do not see anything related to the five-year contracts for primary school teachers on the literature it has sent to us. I hope the INTO will raise this with the Department as well. I ask the Acting Leader to raise with the Department that all those primary school teachers be made permanent. I ask that the Catholic Church, which is the patron of many primary schools, make permanent its primary teachers who are contracted and take them out of the misery they are in so they can get on with their lives and get a mortgage if they get permanency.