Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2023
310. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Education when tickets for school transport will issue to a child (details supplied) who has no other means of getting to school, and who applied and paid for their annual school bus tickets; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40029/23]
View answerThe School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were provided for over 5,400 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.Already over 132,000 tickets have issued for the 2023/2024 school year which is an increase of 12% when compared with the same time last year. This number of tickets has already exceeded the total number of tickets issued in the 2022/23 school year.
The purpose of the Post Primary School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote i.e. 4.8 kilometres (kms) or more from their nearest education centre, having regard to ethos and language.
Children are eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria and are attending their nearest post primary school/centre.
Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who completed the application and payment 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.
Due to 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.
Under the terms of the scheme, the availability of concessionary transport varies from year to year based on the capacity on the buses running on all of the various routes and the number of eligible children accommodated on each route.
Bus Éireann has advised that the pupil referred to is not eligible for mainstream transport as they are attending their 3rd nearest Post Primary Centre.
Bus Éireann has further advised that an application was received on time for this pupil for the 2023/24 school year, however, the existing service is currently operating to capacity and this pupil was unsuccessful in obtaining a concessionary ticket for the 2023/24 school year.
