Beverley Flynn
Question:333 Ms Cooper-Flynn asked the Minister for Education and Science if the cost of school transport will be provided to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo due to her circumstances. [14096/98]
Written Answers. - School Transport.
Grant assistance towards the cost of private transport arrangements may only be considered by my Department in respect of children who are eligible for transport under the terms of the school transport scheme, but for whom no service can be provided.
As the children in question are not attending their nearest school, they are ineligible for transport under the terms of the scheme. Accordingly, it is regretted that the family do not qualify for a grant toward the cost of school transport.
Joe Higgins
Question:334 Mr. Higgins (Dublin West) asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the absence of escorts on school bus services for children with special needs is leading to sanctions being taken against individual children including suspension from use of the bus service for a number of days at a time; if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that these sanctions effectively mean that children with special needs are missing days from school and that these sanctions serve no corrective purpose in view of the fact that many of these children cannot understand the correlation between their behaviour and the fact that they are unable to travel on the school bus. [14097/98]
Joe Higgins
Question:335 Mr. Higgins (Dublin West) asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will implement the recommendations of the School Transport Review report and provide escorts on school bus services for all children with special needs. [14098/98]
Joe Higgins
Question:336 Mr. Higgins (Dublin West) asked the Minister for Education and Science the cost of providing the escort service provided on school bus services for some children with special needs; and the cost of extending the provision of an escort service to all school bus services for children with special needs. [14099/98]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 334, 335 and 336 together.
I am aware of the difficulties to which the Deputy refers. The question of escorts for children with special needs travelling to special schools and special classes was one of the issues considered by the School Transport Review Committee.
The committee's report was presented to my colleague, Deputy Willie O'Dea, Minister of State, in September of last year. The report was subsequently circulated to all relevant parties with an invitation to submit their views on the report's conclusions. I understand that the Minister of State has since had discussions with a number of groups and that the issue of provision for special needs pupils, including the question of escorts for such pupils, has been raised.
Consideration will be given to the views put forward by interested parties as part of the process of arriving at decisions on the future operation of the school transport scheme.
Since 1995, an annual allocation of £150,000 has been provided to fund the pilot scheme of grant-aid towards the provision of escorts on certain school transport services.
All applications for support under the scheme were carefully considered in my Department. It was decided that the pilot phase should focus on: facilitating the appointment of escorts on services to special schools for children with physical disabilities; and providing assistance towards the cost of escorts for pupils attending the special schools for hearing impaired and visuallyimpaired children who travel long distances by bus and train at weekends.
It is estimated that £2 million would be required to extend the escort scheme to all special services.
I can assure the Deputy that the issues which he raises will be considered in the context of any proposed expansion of the escort scheme.