Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 October 2023
250. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Education to examine a number of school transport applications (details supplied); and if she will instruct the school transport section to reply to correspondence. [45140/23]
View answerThe School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.
In addition, school transport scheme services were provided for over 5,400 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.
The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.
Already over 133,000 tickets have issued for the 2023/2024 school year which is an increase of 12% when compared with the start of the 2022/2023 school year. The number of tickets issued so far has already exceeded the total number of tickets issued in the 2022/23 school year.
The purpose of the Post Primary School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote i.e. 4.8 kilometres (kms) or more from their nearest education centre, having regard to ethos and language.
Children who are not eligible for school transport, under the terms of the scheme, may apply to Bus Éireann for transport on a concessionary basis subject to the following conditions:
•a Transport Application Form is completed and submitted to Bus Éireann;
•there is a suitable service, as determined by Bus Éireann, operating into their education centre;
•there is spare capacity on the service;
•the appropriate annual charge is paid; Medical Card waiver is not applicable
The availability of concessionary transport may vary from year to year, is not available on public scheduled services and cannot be guaranteed for the duration of a child’s post primary school education cycle. Where the number of applications for transport on a concessionary basis exceeds the number of seats available, Bus Éireann will determine the allocation of the tickets.
It is recognised that all pupils issued with tickets will not travel every morning and every evening. In addition, certain after school activities may also result in pupils not travelling on certain days.
Bus Éireann organises for vehicles to be full to capacity with tickets based on applications received and based on the seating capacity of the vehicle. For safety reasons, it is not possible to issue additional tickets over and above the seating capacity of the vehicle which could result in a potential overload situation arising and all pupils not being carried on the service.
If a family decide that they no longer require their bus tickets for the current school year, they should return these tickets to their local Bus Éireann school transport office and their seats will be reallocated to other pupils wishing to avail of school transport.
At present, it is not possible for Bus Éireann to examine data on ticket usage as tickets are paper based. However, Bus Éireann recently undertook a pilot E-Ticketing project. Based on the outcome of this pilot project, it is intended that a tender competition for national roll-out of eTicketing on all school transport scheme services will follow. This will provide the Department and Bus Éireann with greater data on real time travel patterns.
Bus Éireann has advised that the pupils referred to are not eligible for mainstream transport as they are attending their third nearest Post Primary Centre. Bus Éireann further advise that applications and payments were received on time for these pupils for the 2023/24 school year, however they were unsuccessful in obtaining a concessionary ticket for the 2023/24 school year and the existing service is currently operating to capacity at present.
Bus Éireann further advise that a separate application has been received from another address for one of the pupils referred on 11/10/2023, which is considered a late application. Bus Éireann are currently assessing this late application and Bus Éireann will notify the family if there is a seat available that can accommodate this pupil for the 2023/24 school year.
