Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2017
412. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a person (details supplied) whose family has paid for a ticket for school transport is not being facilitated or an additional service offered in view of the fact that the bus ticket is paid for. [38242/17]
View answerSchool transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
During the 2016/17 school year almost 116,000 children, including some 12,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million km annually.
Under the terms the Post Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann.
Bus Éireann has advised that the child in question is not eligible for school transport as she is not attending her nearest school.
Children who are not eligible for school transport may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only which is subject to a number of terms and conditions including the availability of spare seats on an existing service and payment of the annual charge. Under the terms of the School Transport Schemes additional vehicles will not be introduced, nor will larger vehicles or extra trips using existing vehicles be provided to cater for children travelling on a concessionary basis.
In this case, the number of applications for transport on a concessionary basis exceeded the number of spare seats available on an existing service.
The child in question was not allocated a seat during the subsequent selection process and the family have been refunded their payment.
The terms of the School Transport Schemes are applied equitably on a national basis.
