Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 January 2017
82. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school bus routes which have been eliminated or reduced due to lower numbers of eligible pupils, resulting in the loss of school transport for concessionary students previously availing of the service over each of the past ten years by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3716/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraSchool transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
Currently in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually. Overall, the number of school transport bus routes has risen from 5,001 in 2011 to 5,256 in 2016.
Families of eligible children, for whom a school transport service was withdrawn as it fell below the minimum number, are eligible for the remote area grant towards the cost of making private transport arrangements.
The level of detailed information requested by the Deputy is not available for each of the past ten years. The following table shows the number of services withdrawn by county over the last eight years and the overall number of children affected by these withdrawals, total figures are not available for all of the years. It is important to note that these are gross and not net figures. Additional routes have also been added, which are not reflected in these numbers.
|
County |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
|
Carlow |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|||||
|
Cavan |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
||||
|
Clare |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
||||
|
Cork |
4 |
1 |
11 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
7 |
|
Donegal |
1 |
3 |
1 |
|||||
|
Dublin |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Galway |
5 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
6 |
||
|
Kerry |
3 |
2 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
Kildare |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|||
|
Kilkenny |
3 |
2 |
||||||
|
Laois |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Leitrim |
4 |
|||||||
|
Limerick |
1 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
||
|
Longford |
1 |
1 |
||||||
|
Louth |
2 |
1 |
||||||
|
Mayo |
1 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Meath |
5 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||||
|
Monaghan |
1 |
3 |
||||||
|
Offaly |
3 |
3 |
1 |
|||||
|
R'common |
7 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
||||
|
Sligo |
1 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Tipperary |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
|||
|
Waterford |
1 |
3 |
||||||
|
W'meath |
1 |
1 |
||||||
|
Wexford |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|||||
|
Wicklow |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
||
|
Total |
14 |
7 |
76 |
11 |
20 |
28 |
36 |
37 |
|
No of Children Affected by withdrawal of service |
||||||||
|
Eligible |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
81 |
162 |
191 |
166 |
206 |
|
C'ssionary |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
6 |
29 |
40 |
113 |
129 |
