Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

That may be the concessionary programme where the children were only given a space because there was space available on the special school transport. That is an ongoing issue which is not directly related to Covid. These children are only given a space on an annual basis where there is a space on the special school transport route in question. However, should another child qualify, he or she would be allocated that space first which leaves the other child out in the open, as it were. This only happens where there is a disagreement on whether the child is in the appropriate special school that is nearest to his or her school or home.

Where a parent does not want to send a child to the particular special school or special class that is nearest to them, the Department will not fund that. It will fund it only on a concessionary basis. Where there is an agreement that it is the most appropriate school for the child, it will not have concessionary funding as the child will be on the school transport scheme. It is a nuanced scheme but every year there are a handful of cases where difficulty arises in that the place is taken up by a child who qualifies and those who had a concessionary place are left without special school transport.