Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 December 2022
295. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Education when school transport will be provided to children in (details supplied) County Mayo in view of the fact that these children have not been able to attend school in the absence of school transport; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60464/22]
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.
The Department of Education and Bus Éireann have a process to facilitate the provision of School Transport Scheme Services for children arriving to Ireland from Ukraine.
For children residing with a host family or for children of Ukrainian families living in their own private accommodation, an application for school transport can be made via a link to a form on www.gov.ie/ukraine
For families and children residing in accommodation centres (or similar), school principals may apply for transport for children attending their school who are residing in such accommodation. School principals should complete the information required on a form which is available on Gov.ie/Ukraine and return it to their local REALT co-ordinator.
Children will be accommodated on existing services where there is capacity. If there is no service or capacity, a grant can be offered to the family as appropriate.
Every effort is being made to ensure school transport services are up and running as they are required. However, given the ongoing movement and arrival of families, it may in some cases take some time to arrange services for families.
I wish to inform the Deputy that Bus Éireann are in the process of allocating a contractor to operate a service for these children, once a contractor has been sourced, the service will commence. Bus Éireann will liaise directly with the relevant REALT Co-ordinator with regard to this matter at that stage.
