asked the Minister for Education the mileage allowance paid by his Department to CIE for school transport, and by CIE to private school bus owners.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - School Transport Service.
1.
CIE are paid for providing school transport not on a mileage basis but on the basis of the total audited expenditure they incur in doing so. I am informed that, in making contracts with individual bus owners, CIE take into consideration not only the mileage involved but also the nature of the routes to be undertaken and a number of other relevant factors. Payment is not at a standard rate per mile.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary like to state what percentage of the total amount voted does the private transport man get?
As against the number of CIE buses being used? The only information I can give the Deputy is the number of buses in use. CIE employ approximately 1,630 vehicles belonging to private contractors. Their own special school bus fleet amounts to 881 buses. There may be variations in size between the different types of bus and those figures must be read with caution.
I have not got very much information from the Parliamentary Secretary.
The Deputy's question relates to the mileage allowance. If he wants more information about the percentage, which is a separate issue, he should put down a separate question.
I accept that. The Parliamentary Secretary is in his informative mood again. Does the private bus owner get less than CIE get for the same kind of work? The private owners are convinced that is so.
The situation is obviously quite different because the CIE buses are paid for out of the general budget of CIE and the buses are the property of CIE. Payments in connection with those buses are incorporated in their general accounts whereas, in the case of private contractors, each contractor is paid a specific amount of money for his route.
2.
asked the Minister for Education if he will provide school transport for the pupils travelling from Tullamore to the Regional Technical College in Athlone.
The school transport scheme is confined to pupils attending primary and post-primary courses and students whose homes are within three miles of a suitable school are not eligible for transport. In the case of students travelling from Tullamore to Athlone it is presumably courses of a third level nature that they attend and they are, accordingly, outside the ambit of the free transport scheme.
3.
asked the Minister for Education the reason for the delay in issuing tickets to fare-paying pupils attending primary schools in general.
I am not aware that there is significant delay in this matter. If the Deputy is in a position to indicate specific instances I will have inquiries made.
4.
asked the Minister for Education the reason for withholding tickets for the school bus in respect of a number of pupils attending the primary school at Kenagh, County Longford.
The children from whom tickets were withheld for a short period were concessionary fare-paying passengers. This action was necessitated by difficulties related to the licensing and insurance of the vehicle in regard to the numbers which it would carry—difficulties which I understand have now been overcome.
5.
asked the Minister for Education the number of fare-paying pupils on buses attending primary schools throughout the country; and the number of such pupils travelling by bus to post-primary schools in the same areas.
The figures the Deputy seeks are, respectively, 11,821 and 1,281.
6.
asked the Minister for Education the number of school buses engaged in transporting pupils to primary and to post-primary schools throughout the country.
The number is 2,514.
7.
asked the Minister for Education if he will restore school transport to the children of Knocknacaska and Leith who are attending Cappagh national school, County Kerry.
Under the terms of the free transport scheme, a service cannot be restored unless there are at least ten eligible children in a particular locality for conveyance to the school in question. Since this requirement is not met in the case mentioned in the question, I regret that it is not open to the Department to restore this service.
8.
asked the Minister for Education if he will restore school transport to a person (name supplied) in County Kerry who is attending Bouleenshere national school, County Kerry.
Under the terms of the schools transport scheme free transport may be allowed only to the nearest national school. Since this child lives in the Glenderry national school area, he is not eligible for free transport to Bouleenshere national school. However, as there is no service to Glenderry national school a special concession operated by my Department enables him to avail of fare-paying facilities at a specially reduced rate on the service to Bouleenshere national school.