Vol. 473 No. 5
114 Mr. E. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Education the proposals, if any, she has to provide the necessary funding to employ an assistant on special school buses transferring children with special needs to and from school on a daily basis; and the findings of the pilot scheme put in place in this regard. [1851/97]
The Deputy will be aware that, in 1995, I allocated a sum of £150,000 for the introduction of a pilot scheme of grant-aid towards the provision of escorts on certain school transport services. Similar levels of funding have been made available in 1996 and 1997.
All applications for support under this scheme were carefully considered by my Department. It was decided that the pilot phase of the scheme should concentrate on facilitating the appointment of escorts on services to special schools and special classes for children with a physical handicap; and providing assistance towards the cost of escorts for pupils attending the special schools for hearing-impaired and visually-impaired children who travel long distances by bus and train at weekends.
The question of the future provision of escorts on special transport services is one of the issues being considered by the school transport review committee which was established last year. I expect to receive that committee's report in the near future.
