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School Transport Eligibility

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 November 2019

Thursday, 28 November 2019

Questions (102)

Tom Neville

Question:

102. Deputy Tom Neville asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of school transport for a child (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49602/19]

View answer

Written answers

School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the 2018/2019 school year over 117,500 children, including over 13,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres at a cost of over €200m in 2018.

The purpose of the 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. Under the terms of my Department's Post Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for school transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

All children who are eligible for school transport and who completed the application process on time have been accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation for the 2019/20 school year.

Children who are not eligible for school transport may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only and will be facilitated where spare seats are available after eligible children have been accommodated. Where the number of ineligible children exceeds the number of spare seats available Bus Éireann will allocate tickets for the spare seats using an agreed selection process.

Bus Éireann have advised that the pupil referred to by the Deputy lives 8.4kms from his nearest school and 12kms from the school he is attending. The pupil was unsuccessful in obtaining a concessionary seat for the 2019/20 school year and a refund has been issued by Bus Eireann.

Earlier this year, I 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 has been given to those areas where there was 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. The area in question did not fall within this criteria.

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