asked the Minister for Education if he will give details of the regulations governing school transport for primary and secondary students of approved schools.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - School Transport.
37.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to circulate with the Official Report a statement of the regulations governing the free school transport schemes.
The following are the regulations governing school transport—
I. Transport for Primary School Pupils— There are three separate schemes as follows:—
Scheme A—
Applies to (i) children between 4 and 10 years of age living not less than two miles from the nearest suitable national school, and (ii) children between 10 and 14 years of age living not less than three miles from the nearest suitable national school.
To warrant setting up and continuance of this scheme, the average number of eligible children conveyed daily must be at least ten. (This can be reduced to seven where the majority of the children live three miles or more from the schools.)
Scheme B—
Applies to services established where one school is amalgamated with another. All children from the former school area are transported to the central school irrespective of distance. A daily average of seven children is required to warrant continuance of "B" type services.
Scheme C—
Applies to Protestant children under 10 living 2½ miles from school and children between 10 and 14 years living more than 3½ miles from school. A daily average of 5 is accepted for continuance of a "C" type service.
In all cases, transport is provided only to the nearest school.
II. Transport for Post-Primary School Pupils
(i) To be eligible for free transport a post-primary pupil must (a) be a recognised pupil and (b) reside three miles or more from the nearest post-primary centre at which free education is available under the Department's scheme.
(ii) A recognised post-primary pupil is one who is not less than 12 years of age on the first day of January of the school year and who, as a rule, has completed a full course of primary education. An exception is made in the case of pupils who may not have completed a full course of primary education but who would be at least 13 years of age on the first day of the school year (i.e. 1st August).
(iii) A post-primary centre is a town or village having one or more post-primary schools, either secondary or vocational.
(iv) In determining eligibility of pupils whose nearest post-primary centre has more than one school, distance is measured from a central point (i.e. an identifiable point equidistant between the schools in the centre). This is done so as to avoid the anomalous situation of providing free transport for one member of a family while refusing it to another.
(v) A special school transport service will not be set up unless there is a minimum of seven eligible pupils requiring transport within an area which can be reasonably and economically served by such a service.
(vi) Transport operates to the nearest post-primary centre for all eligible pupils.
(vii) Where pupils who are basically eligible for free transport (i.e. reside three miles or more from the nearest post-primary centre) attend school at a centre other than the nearest one the Minister for Education may, at his discretion, concede them free transport from the nearest pick-up point within the catchment area of the centre attended provided there is room for them on the bus. They must use their own resources to get to this pick-up point.
(viii) When the scheme was introduced in 1967, concessions were allowed for pupils who were already in post-primary education. They were allowed free transport to the centre attended provided they were three miles or more from it, even though they might have been less than three miles from another centre. They have been allowed free transport for the whole journey or only from within the catchment area of the centre attended depending on whether or not their nearest centre was in a position to provide them with an adequate course at the time they commenced their post-primary education.
(This is a transitional concession, the need for which should disappear generally within the next twelve months.)
(ix) In pursuance of the national policy on the Irish language pupils who wish to obtain post-primary education entirely through Irish are allowed free transport to the nearest centre in which there is a secondary school graded A (1) or A (2) or a comprehensive or vocational school providing such education — subject, of course, to their residing three miles or more from that centre and provided a satisfactory and economic service can be made available. (An A (1) school is a school in which Irish is the medium of instruction in the subjects of the curriculum taught in the school (excepting English and modern languages in so far as such languages are taught through their own medium) and, in addition, is the ordinary language used by teachers and pupils. An A (2) school is a school in which there are one or more class-groups which fulfil the foregoing conditions.)
(x) As a concession to Protestant parents who wish to have their children educated in Protestant schools, free transport is provided to the nearest Protestant school for such pupils even though there may be a vocational school nearer to them. This concession is subject to the following conditions:—
(a) the pupil must live three miles or more from the Protestant secondary school attended;
(b) no special service will be introduced unless the conditions set out at (v) above are fulfilled;
(c) As the free transport scheme does not operate inside the boundaries of Metropolitan Dublin and the other cities, the concession does not apply to pupils living in these areas.
(d) Eligibility for remoteness grants will continue to be determined by reference to the pupil's position as regards transport to the nearest school (Protestant secondary, Comprehensive or adequate Vocational).
38.
asked the Minister for Education if he will explain why free travel is provided for some post-primary children in the Clonsilla Road, Blanchardstown, County Dublin area and denied to other children from the same area.
The free post-primary transport scheme applies basically to children from rural areas who live three miles or more from the nearest centre at which free education is available. As Clonsilla Road, Blanchardstown, is within three miles of the Blanchardstown post-primary centre, pupils living on that road are not eligible for free travel.
Certain transitional concessions were granted to pupils who had commenced their post-primary education before the transport scheme came into full operation and who were not attending school at the nearest centre. These concessions are being continued until the pupils concerned have completed their post-primary education. One pupil from Clonsilla Road has free concessionary transport under this provision of the scheme.
The Parliamentary Secretary will appreciate the trouble this is causing? I have a detailed letter about this which states that the children of this man's neighbours are being carried to school while his child is not being brought. He says that it is sheer discrimination in his case. I can give the Parliamentary Secretary details of the case in question.
The poor Parliamentary Secretary has hundreds of those letters.
I have many such. I trust that the Deputy will be able to explain the reasons to him, which are logical enough, as to why his child does not qualify.
Why are the people in the Dublin area discriminated against in relation to distance from schools? There is no place for these children in the Blanchardstown vocational school and they have to go into the city from this area. Why are they not brought? Simply because they are told it is in the Dublin metropolitan area, and it is not in it. This is a wrong reply that has been sent out.
The Deputy will be aware of the fact that in almost every case there is no school in the Dublin area which is further than three miles from where the children live. I am not aware, as the Deputy suggests, that there is no place in the vocational school at Blanchardstown. If that is so I would be glad to hear from the Deputy.
These people are not in the Dublin metropolitan area and that is the reason given for refusing them transport.
Well, as far as we are concerned they are in the Dublin metropolitan area.
What sadist decided on three miles as a reasonable distance?