Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 19 Apr 1994

Vol. 441 No. 5

Written Answers. - School Transport.

John Connor

Ceist:

206 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Education the reason she proposes to terminate the Laragh/Leamore transport service to Ballintubber national school, County Roscommon; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that this service is availed of by 25 children, and that 10 of these children live four and a half miles from the school; her views on whether its withdrawal would constitute a financial loss to her Department because of the higher number of fare paying children using it; if its withdrawal would impose an unacceptable level of hardship and inconvenience on all the affected children and their parents; and if she will maintain this service.

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

The terms of the school transport scheme require that a service may be retained only when a sufficient number of eligible pupils is available for transport. The number required in this case is ten, but there have been only five eligible pupils during the last three terms. For that reason, a notice was issued to the effect that the service would be withdrawn from the end of the Easter term.

Despite the high number of fare-paying pupils who enjoy concessionary transport on this service, its withdrawal would not constitute a financial loss to my Department, as the concessionary fare is not set at an economic or market level. Nevertheless, having given further consideration to the level of hardship which would be involved, I am pleased to inform the Deputy that I have decided to allow this service to remain in place pending a review of the situation.