Peadar Tóibín
Question:140. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Education and Skills if parish boundaries will be recognised when places on school buses are being allocated. [28765/18]
View answerTuesday, 3 July 2018
Questions (140)
Written answers
School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
Currently over 116,000 children, including almost 12,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,500 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually at a total cost of almost €190 million in 2017.
The purpose of my Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school.
Children are generally eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school having regard to ethos and language.
In this regard, children have their eligibility for school transport determined by the distance they reside from their nearest school.
The terms of the school transport schemes are applied equitably on a national basis.