asked the Minister for Education why the school bus from Carrigart to Umlagh national school, County Donegal, was discontinued.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - School Transport Service.
13.
The transport service was discontinued because the homes of the children concerned were less than the qualifying distance from the school.
For the sake of everybody, and particularly Members of this House and other public representatives, will the Parliamentary Secretary clarify, if it is capable of being clarified, once and for all, where a school has been closed by way of amalgamation, does the right which was available at the outset continue that, regardless of the distance from the new amalgamated school, children get school transport as they did in this case when the local school was closed and the amalgamation took place?
I gather this amalgamation was one of the first which took place under the scheme of amalgamation of schools and before any uniform standards were established for eligibility for transport. The position now is that, in general, transport is made available to children from the closed school district so long as they live more than a mile from the new central school. In this case the children are living less than a mile from the amalgamated school.
Does the one mile rule apply in all cases where amalgamations are taking place?
I gather it is intended to be a general principle.
Question No. 14.
In this case there are children who live more than a mile from the new school. Not all of them would be more than a mile from it, but there are children who are, and they are not being catered for since the bus service ceased.
Am I to take it from what the Parliamentary Secretary said that, if a school is closed and some children who were slightly over a mile from the old school and were provided with transport and are now slightly under a mile from the new school lose that transport?
For them to be considered part of the catchment of the school which was closed they would have to be nearer to that than to the other school. The one mile rule relates to their distance from the new central school. With regard to Deputy Blaney's question I gather that, when this service was withdrawn, there were 20 children travelling on it and at that time all of the children lived less than a mile away.
I have called the next question.
Is there a change of rules?
There seems to be.