Vol. 550 No. 4
862 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Education and Science if his Department will re-establish the school bus route from Rathorpe, County Galway, to Gort schools for the families who have lost their traditional school bus service due to south Galway flooding; his views on whether it is unfair to penalise these families long after the flooding problem has been resolved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9249/02]
As a rule post-primary school transport routes are planned so that, as far as possible, no eligible pupil will have more than two miles to travel to a pick-up point. Pupils living off the main route of a service are generally expected to make their own way or to be brought to convenient pick-up points along the main route. Home pick-ups were never envisaged as being part of the school transport scheme as the cost involved on a countrywide level would be prohibitive.
The Department strives to provide an efficient service in the most cost effective manner. Should a service happen to pass a pupil's home, this is due to a purely fortuitous set of circumstances and is not a requirement under the scheme. The position in this case is that the pupils concerned reside 1.3 miles or less from an existing pick up point on the current route of service. This is considered to be a satisfactory level of service in the context of the general operation of the scheme. As extra cost would be incurred in re-routing the service as requested and as three eligible pupils could not be catered for as a result of the proposed re-routing the present arrangement is the most that may be offered.
