Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 September 2020
463. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Education if she or her officials have met LocalLink or other community-based transport initiatives on resolving the school transport situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24112/20]
View answerSchool Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education.
In the 2019/20 school year over 120,000 children, including over 14,200 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 €219m in 2019.
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. Under the terms of the Department's School Transport Scheme children are eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria (3.2km at primary and 4.8km at post-primary) and are attending their nearest school as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Officials from my Department have regular engagement the National Transport Authority, who have responsibility for LocalLink, on transport related issues.
As the Deputy may be aware, a Review of the School Transport Scheme was announced by my predecessor in October 2019. Given the current evolving situation with Covid-19 the proposed review has been delayed. I propose to convene the Steering Group shortly and to agree and supplement revised terms of reference to reflect the Programme for Government including an examination of issues such as the nearest or next-nearest school. It is intended that the review will, among other issues, examine the potential for a more co-ordinated approach with other Government Departments that also fund transport services.
