Robert Troy
Question:201. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Education if she will give an outline of the school bus lottery system for concessionary seats, outlining in full how seats are allocated through this system. [7181/24]
View answerThursday, 15 February 2024
Questions (201)
Written answers
The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.
The total cost of the scheme in 2023 was €382.02m.
There has been an overall increase in both applications and tickets issued for the 2023/2024 school year in comparison to the 2022/2023 school year.
Under the current terms of the scheme, 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. Any children who do not meet these criteria are deemed not eligible, or otherwise known as concessionary applicants, and are allocated a ticket based on the availability of a seat when all eligible children have been catered for.
The priority order in which tickets are allocated by Bus Éireann in any given year is as follows:
Tickets are allocated to all eligible pupils who apply and pay on time.
Tickets are allocated to late eligible applicants if the selection process has not taken place for concessionary applicants. This selection process takes place within a few days of tickets being allocated to eligible pupils who apply and pay on time. If an application/payment is received for an eligible child after the payment deadline (a “late eligible”) but before the selection process takes place for concessionary applicants, the late eligible is given priority over concessionary applicants.
Tickets are allocated to concessionary applicants who apply and pay on time (a selection process takes place and seats are allocated until service is full. Those pupils who are unsuccessful in getting a seat are given a refund on the cost of their ticket).
Where capacity remains once all eligible applicants are catered for, the selection process for allocating tickets to concessionary applicants is as follows: Using the Family ID as a reference, first priority is given to all existing concessionary applicants (whether they had seats or not in the last school year) who have paid by the deadline date for payments plus siblings of these pupils provided they also have paid by the deadline date. Second priority is all new applicants who applied and paid by the deadline dates (i.e. those applying for transport for the first time). Finally, all other applicants (for example late applicants/payees).