I propose to take Questions Nos. 974, 976 and 977 together.
The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the 2020/2021 school year over 114,100 children, including over 14,700 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €224.7m in 2020.
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.
My Department engaged intensively with Bus Éireann in regard to the logistics for the safe operation of School Transport Scheme services for the 2020/2021 school year. Based on public health advice my Department provided for School Transport Scheme services to fully operate, but with additional measures and hygiene requirements in place and with the rolling implementation of measures on post-primary services as required to provide physical distancing, using 50% of passenger capacity.
Updated health advice was received from NPHET on 18th August 2020, which was that post-primary services were required to operate using 50% of passenger capacity, following which Government agreed to provide the necessary funding to ensure that full implementation of this public health recommendation was achieved on all post-primary services as quickly as possible.
For those children who were eligible for transport under the terms of the post-primary school transport scheme and whose parents decided not to use post-primary transport for the 2020/2021 school year, in light of the impact of most recent health advice, the Department agreed to provide a grant to support them with the cost of private transport arrangements. Parents were asked to inform my Department by Friday the 4th of September 2020 if they wished to avail of this option.
Applications for this grant were received from some 752 families, of which 580 families met the required criteria and were deemed eligible for the grant. School Transport Section is currently in the process of making payment of these grants to those families.
