Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 September 2019
189. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the possibility of utilising the recently announced €1 million funding for school transport to provide additional bus capacity for approximately 11 concessionary children (details supplied) in Knockmoylan and Ballyhale, County Kilkenny, who have been left without a seat will be investigated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38809/19]
View answer190. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the possibility of utilising the recently announced €1 million funding for school transport to provide additional bus capacity for approximately 12 concessionary children (details supplied) in Mullinavat, County Kilkenny, who have been left without a seat will be investigated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38810/19]
View answer191. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the possibility of utilising the recently announced €1 million funding for school transport to provide additional bus capacity for approximately seven concessionary children (details supplied) in County Kilkenny will be investigated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38811/19]
View answer192. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the possibility of utilising the recently announced €1 million funding for school transport to provide additional bus capacity for approximately 13 concessionary children (details supplied) in County Kilkenny will be investigated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38812/19]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 189 to 192, inclusive, together.
School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. In the 2018/19 school year there were over 117,500 children, including over 13,000 children with special educational needs, transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually at a cost of over €200m in 2018.
The purpose of the 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 as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Minister McHugh has recently sanctioned an additional €1m on the school transport budget to allow for temporary alleviation measures to address a shortage of school transport capacity on the post primary scheme in 2019. The cost of these measures is being given to those areas where there is a significant concentration of post-primary children who have paid on time for the 2019/2020 school year and who are attending their second closest school. A number of measures have been confirmed to alleviate some of the capacity issues in the areas of highest demand in some parts of the country.
With regard to the provision of transport for the current school year, Bus Éireann continues to work with the Department of Education and Skills to process applications and design routes to ensure that all eligible pupils who paid on time are facilitated with school transport. In doing this they are endeavouring to facilitate as many concessionary pupils as possible where capacity exists.
Parents are advised to contact their local Bus Éireann office should they have specific queries in regard to capacity on various routes.
