Jimmy Deenihan
Question:121 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Education if she will allow school transport for persons (details supplied) in County Kerry.
Written Answers. - School Transport.
Under the rules of the Primary School Transport Scheme, there must be a sufficient number of children in a distinct locality attending their nearest suitable national school, to ensure that the average daily number of eligible children conveyed each term is not less than ten, in order to warrant the establishment, or retention, of a transport service to a national school. A transport service may also be established, if it can be done within reasonable cost limits, where at least five eligible children from a distinct locality reside at least three miles from the school.
The service to which the Deputy refers was established under the normal conditions of the Primary School Transport Scheme. However, Bus Éireann informed my Department, as it is obliged to do, that, during the Christmas and Easter terms, the number had dropped to six. The chairperson of the Board of Mangement of Clonkeen national school was advised in December 1992, and again in March 1993, that the service would have to be withdrawn at the end of the Easter term.
My Department would have been prepared to retain the service had the average number of eligible pupils risen sufficiently in the meantime to warrant its retention. That did not happen.
The two children to whom the Deputy refers are not eligible for transport to the school in question. They live closer to another national school in the area.