Vol. 549 No. 3
425 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason persons (details supplied) in County Mayo are not being provided with transport to their nearest national school; and the reason they must change to a school further away in order to avail of free transport when they were always given free transport in the past. [6575/02]
The pupils in question are not attending their nearest national school, and are therefore not eligible for free transport. A school may not be disregarded for transport purposes due to the lack of suitable transport to it.
The most that my Department can offer in this type of case is concessionary fare paying transport to the school concerned. This is subject to there being room available on a service after all fully eligible pupils have been accommodated, and provided no extra State cost is involved by way of extending or altering the route.
