Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Minister of State and officials for coming here and being generous with their time and information. Regarding the departmental output tables, I have a question on school transport services. I refer to the targets and outputs, items Nos. 4 and 5, the number of students provided with school transport services and the number of school transport routes. The target and output for students provided with transport in 2013, 2014 and 2015 was 114,000. The target for school transport routes in 2013 was 6,000 while the output was 6,500. Given that the output was 500 more than the target, what was the situation? In 2014, the target was 6,000 school transport routes, which was achieved, meaning there were 500 fewer routes. The 2015 target is also 6,000. My experience on the ground has been that the number of school transport routes has been restricted due to the changes to the minimum number of students required for a route. The changes to the "nearest school" rule have also have an impact in that students can avail of transport only to their nearest school. It has reached a pinch point this year, reducing the number of school routes. Routes that would have previously included students who were not going to their closest school have lost students and are, therefore, being discontinued. Could the Minister comment on this?