School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 114,100 children, including over 14,700 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €224.7m in 2020.
The purpose of my Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school. Under the terms of my Department’s School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 3.2kms at primary and 4.8kms at post-primary and are attending their nearest School/Education Centre as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
The number of mainstream applications for transport in County Tipperary for the past four years is as follows:
Year
|
No. of applications
|
Source Data Date
|
2020
|
5554
|
30/01/2020
|
2019
|
5625
|
28/02/2
019
|
2018
|
5558
|
12/02/2018
|
2017
|
5436
|
21/06/2017
|
It is important to note that the above figures do not include applications where there was no service available, grant pupils and families who closed their application. The above figures include active applications (new applications & applications that carried forward from the previous school year). Please note that the number of applications include families who may not have completed the payment process but did apply for transport.
The number of appeals received in the School Transport Appeals Board for County Tipperary in the past four years are as follows:
Year
|
Total appeals received
|
2021
|
3
|
2020
|
16
|
2019
|
13
|
2018
|
15
|
2017
|
7
|