Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 September 2022
286. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Education if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the school bus collecting children from Banna Road, Ardfert, is now picking children up at 7.35 am to travel outwards to Ballybunion before bringing schoolchildren to school in Tralee, due to the busy junction on the main road and concerns about children crossing the road on the inbound journey at 8:20 am; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44553/22]
View answerThe School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 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 €289m in 2021.
In July 2022, Government announced funding for the waiving of school transport scheme fees for the coming school year as part of a wider package of cost of living measures.
Ticket registration for the 2022/23 school year closed on 29 July by which time almost 130,000 applications/registrations were received for mainstream school transport. This figure includes 44,299 new applications as well as roll-overs from the previous school year.
Children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 kilometres from and are attending their nearest national school, and at post-primary level where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest post-primary school/education centre as determined by the department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Bus Éireann has advised that the route referred to by the Deputy is a mainstream school transport service.
Bus Éireann has also advised that this services first pickup is in Ballyheigue at 07:40am. The vehicle then proceeds to collect pupils at Banna Road at 07:45am. This service does not operate near Ballybunion and pupils are receiving a direct service to school in Tralee.
This service was due to collect pupils at Banna Cross which is the busy junction to which the Deputy refers. This pickup point has been moved from Banna Cross to the Banna Road ensuring no pupils are being collected at a busy junction.
This service has been advanced by 5 minutes in Ballyheigue in the morning from 07:45 to 07:40 to allow the service to have sufficient time to travel to the new pickup point on the Banna Road.
