Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 November 2016
86. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of proposals for the school transport system following calls (details supplied) for observations on the way the system could be improved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36483/16]
View answerSchool transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
Currently in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.
In general, children are eligible for school transport if they are attending their nearest school and satisfy the requisite distance criteria.
The review of the concessionary charges and rules element of the School Transport Scheme committed to under the Programme for Government has been completed and is under consideration. As announced in July, a cross party group was established to feed into this review. A meeting with this group has taken place and subsequently submissions on the school transport scheme generally were received by my Department. These are now being examined.
