Pa Daly
Question:427. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Education the reason a school bus route (details supplied) has not resumed since it was stopped during Covid restrictions. [12018/24]
View answerWednesday, 20 March 2024
Questions (427)
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.
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 in August of 2019, the school in question advised that they wished to advance the times of the service to accommodate a change of start time at the school from 9.30 to 9.00.
The service which was operating this route at the time was unable to accommodate these changes as this service was also linked to a post-primary school run.
Bus Éireann have further advised that there have been no new applications received to date for the new school year 2024/25.
If pupils wish to apply for school transport for the upcoming school year, they should do so at buseireann.ie/schooltransport.