Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1091. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education the number of applicants for school transport in County Kildare in each of the years 2017 to 2021 and to date in 2022; the number of school transport places provided since 2017; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that a school (details supplied) has no school transport service again in 2022; and her plans, if any, to provide a service. [40564/22]
View answerSchool Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021.
Bus Éireann have provided the following data as a tabular statement as requested. This information includes all mainstream applications received including roll-over applications from the previous school years, closed applications, grant applications, concessionary no service applications, late eligible and concessionary applications.
As the closing date for applications has not yet passed, it is not possible to supply information for the 2022/2023 school year at this time.
Mainstream applications for Kildare
|
Number of Applications |
Source Data |
Number of Tickets Issued |
Source Data |
|
|
SCYR2017/18 |
6321 |
Accurate as at 23/05/18 |
4789 |
2018 |
|
SCYR2018/19 |
6788 |
Accurate as at 23/05/19 |
4903 |
2019 |
|
SCYR2019/20 |
6843 |
Accurate as at 20/04/20 |
4995 |
2020 (Covid-19 impact) |
|
SCYR2020/21 |
6790 |
Accurate as at 24/05/21 |
4585 |
2021 |
|
SCYR2021/22 |
6950 |
Accurate as at 23/05/22 |
4709 |
2022 |
Bus Éireann have advised there are currently three Special Educational Needs school transport services operating to the school mentioned by the Deputy. There are currently no mainstream school transport services operating to that school at present. However, the Local Office are currently assessing mainstream eligible transport applications to ascertain if a new mainstream school transport service is warranted at this time. All families that have made applications for the upcoming school year will be contacted by Bus Éireann directly.
