Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 September 2020
397. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Education when places on a school bus will be provided for persons (details supplied); and if the issues associated with the places and service will be resolved as soon as possible. [23374/20]
View answerSchool Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
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.
In the current school year over 120,000 children, including over 14,200 children with special educational needs, are 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 €219m in 2019.
Children who are eligible for school transport and who have completed the application and payment process on time have be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.
Bus Eireann has confirmed that part payment for tickets for the children referred to by the Deputy was received on the 5th August 2020 for the 2020/2021 school year and as such their payment is late.
Payments for Post-Primary seats completed or made after 4th August 2020 will be only considered when 50% capacity, required by new Covid19 public health guidelines, is achieved on each route. In the event of not securing a ticket where no capacity exists, or on cancellation, a full refund will be issued.
Late applicants and/or families who pay late are not guaranteed a seat and will only be allocated a seat if capacity is available once seats are allocated to those families who applied and paid on time for transport services for the 2020/2021 school year.
At present the existing post primary service is operating to capacity and there are no seats available.
Bus Éireann has confirmed that there is capacity on the primary service for which this family applied and that a ticket for the primary pupil will be issued in due course.
