Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 September 2022
310. Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Education if extra routes, extra buses or buses with bigger capacity have been procured for the Cork South West constituency in 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45427/22]
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.
Children who are eligible for school transport and who have completed the application process on time will be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.
Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who completed the application process on time, will be considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated; such seats are referred to as concessionary seats.
Because of the nature of concessionary transport for non-eligible children and the priority of providing places for eligible children, there may be an excess of demand over supply for concessionary places, in these cases Bus Éireann will allocate tickets for spare seats using a random selection process.
It is not possible to provide the information in the manner requested by the Deputy as Bus Éireann are continuing to process applications and issuing tickets as soon as extra buses and drivers are sourced and become available to provide transport for the higher numbers qualifying for the service.
Currently, the number of mainstream tickets issued in Cork for the 2022/2023 school year to include eligible and concessionary tickets exceeded those issued at the same period in the 2021/2022 school year by over 2,400.
