I thank the Chairman of the committee for the opportunity to address the committee on matters relating to school transport catchment areas.
This invitation is timely in view of the commitment in the programme for Government to review the school transport system, including the catchment boundaries. The Department is currently developing proposals for progressing this commitment and the intention is to make substantial progress during the current year.
As members will be aware, school transport, or aspects of the school transport service, have been the subject of a number of reviews within the last two decades, including the committee's own report in 1999. Since that time significant improvements in the service have been introduced. I will outline some of these improvements to place the review of the catchment areas in a broader context.
With effect from 2001 the following improvements were implemented. All primary school children living 3.2 km or more from their nearest suitable school are now eligible for free transport. The previous distinction between children over and under ten years of age has been abolished. The number of eligible primary pupils required to establish a new transport service has been reduced from ten to seven. The threshold for maintaining a service has also been changed. At post-primary level, the combined daily travelling and waiting time has been reduced from a maximum of 2.5 hours. The distance requirement for eligibility for certain transport grants have been reduced to 3.2 km. The qualifying distance for post-primary pupils residing remote from a school bus route was reduced to 3.2 km.
More recent improvements include the establishment in January 2003 of an independent school transport appeals board which is operating successfully and a formal vetting structure for drivers and escorts on all services operating under the school transport scheme.
The areas where the most significant improvements have been brought about relate to special needs and safety. Transport services for children with special educational needs have reflected the significant growth and development of special education provision over the past decade. I emphasise that any review of school transport services involving catchment boundaries will not affect in any way the provision of services for children with special educational needs. Costs are of necessity high in this area but we will continue to ensure the appropriate level of service for these special children is provided.
Safety on school buses is accorded the highest priority by the Department. This is reflected in the significant improvements introduced in recent years. For example, the three-for-two seating arrangement has been fully phased out. Each child has an individual seat with a seat belt. Bus Éireann has hired more than 300 additional vehicles and the company has been authorised to acquire 161 additional buses in order to reduce the age of the school transport fleet. All buses in the school transport scheme are equipped with seat belts. A number of safety campaigns have been launched in order to reiterate and emphasise the issues of safety by way of television, cinema and radio advertisements. This campaign is ongoing in order to drive home the message about the wearing of seat belts.
A warning flashing light system is currently being tested. This is important as statistics indicate that the greatest danger for children is not necessarily when they are on the bus but when they are in the vicinity of the bus, when alighting or boarding the bus. We are conscious of this issue and we will need to make provision for this in the future. There has been a significant increase in expenditure on school transport, with an expenditure of €172 million in 2007. The budget for 2008 is €175 million. This upward pressure on costs will undoubtedly continue as the general costs of school transport increase.
From the outset, the purpose of the school transport scheme was to ensure access to primary and post-primary education for children who, because of where they live, might have difficulty in attending school regularly. At primary level, eligibility for transport is determined on the basis of distance criteria to the nearest suitable school. At post-primary level, eligibility is based on both distance and residence in a particular catchment area. These areas have their origins in the establishment of free post-primary education in the late 1960s and were determined following consultation with schools and local educational interests. I will return to that point later because it is important.
For the purposes of planning the provision of school transport, the country was divided into approximately 300 geographic districts each with a number of primary schools feeding into a post-primary centre with one or more post-primary schools. Members will be aware that in rural Ireland generally, the majority of towns have a boys' school, a girls' school and possibly a vocational school. This was the traditional model which is still widespread but changes have taken place. The reason for these defined catchment areas is to facilitate the orderly planning of the accommodation needs of existing and new schools as well as to facilitate the operation of post-primary school transport services on a rational and cost-effective basis. At post-primary level, eligible pupils are generally given transport to and from the post-primary centre serving the catchment area in which they live. While parents are free to send their children to any school they wish, the school transport scheme is not intended to provide an open-ended choice of transport to a range of different schools.
There is some degree of choice within the current scheme, however, in that post-primary pupils who are eligible for school transport to the post-primary centre in their catchment area may, under certain conditions, get transport to attend a school in a different catchment area. This is usually referred to as catchment boundary transport, an issue of which I am sure the committee will be aware. It is offered if there are spare seats available on the relevant bus after all the eligible pupils have been accommodated. Approximately 8,500 post-primary pupils avail of catchment boundary transport and this represents just over 11% of post-primary pupils using transport under the scheme.
Catchment boundary pupils are not guaranteed school transport indefinitely. Rather, transport in such instances is dependent on the availability of spare seats on the buses used to transport eligible students. Any such additional capacity is allocated on a term-to-term basis, which can give rise to difficulties. Catchment boundary pupils are required to pay the same contributions as eligible post-primary pupils to avail of school transport and are responsible for getting to the nearest pick-up point inside the relevant boundary.
As I have already said, we have done considerable preliminary work for the review and we envisage commencing the actual review very quickly. We intend to approach this review with an open mind and in a constructive way. At the same time, we do not underestimate the complexities involved in the review and the challenges that are likely to arise.
Without wishing in any way to pre-empt the work of the review, I would like to mention a few of the issues likely to arise. While changes to catchment areas may benefit some schools, they could also mean a reduction in the size of the catchment area for others. Where the Department has changed catchment areas in the past, as for example when a new school has been built requiring a redivision of some of the existing catchment areas, there has been considerable anxiety about the negative effects on enrolments on the part of existing schools losing some of their catchment areas. Boards of management and principals are likely to oppose any change of boundary configuration which they perceive to be to their disadvantage. Obviously, any general review has the potential to generate more widespread disquiet. This is equally the case regarding students and their parents.
Changes to catchment boundaries may benefit some but they may also discommode others. Even if we phase in changes in respect of existing students to ensure they are not inconvenienced, the Department is aware there are existing patterns of transport and any attempt to change boundaries which will give effect to changes in patterns of transport is likely to cause some anxiety among parents. Even relatively minor changes in enrolment patterns arising from a change in catchment areas can, over time, affect the viability of some schools. Small rural schools are vulnerable to any changes in enrolment patterns. This is an anxiety transmitted constantly, particularly by the smaller schools. We constantly get representation from small, especially rural, schools. Any perceived potential change will give rise to anxiety.
The task of planning school accommodation could be made more difficult with the possibility of an accommodation surplus in some areas and a shortfall in others. This could create an artificial demand for additional capital funding at a time when the Department is fully committed to a major programme of investment in the existing stock of schools. There is potential for increased costs if changes are made to the catchment boundaries, particularly if services criss-cross. At present, school transport journeys account for approximately 82 million km over the course of an academic year and the cost of the service in 2008 will be €175 million.
The proposed review provides the Department with a good opportunity to tease out some of these issues in a concentrated way. Many of the issues I have addressed and the fears that are likely to be engendered in some of the schools can be overcome by a thorough and meaningful process of consultation with all the interested bodies, including the individual schools as well as the management bodies themselves. We intend to include the necessity for consultation as part of the terms of reference of any review of catchment boundaries. The Department will complete its work in preparation for this review at an early date and I look forward to the observations of the committee today. We intend taking these observations on board as appropriate during the course of the review.
That concludes my presentation. I hope we will be able to answer any questions raised by members of the committee.