Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak about Kilcredan National School. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, more than 172,500 children are transported daily in almost 8,000 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres.

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 current terms of the school transport scheme, children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 km from and are attending their nearest national school. At post-primary level, they are eligible where they reside not less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest post-primary school or education centre. Distance is determined by the Department-Bus Éireann and rules having regard to ethos and language.

Eligible children who complete the application process and pay or enter their medical card details on time will get a seat on a school bus service if a service is available. Children who are not eligible for school transport but who complete the application and pay or enter their medical card details on time will be considered for any spare seats available after eligible children have been accommodated. These spare seats are called concessionary seats, which are constantly discussed here every August, September and October when the schools reopen. There may be more demand than availability for concessionary seats. In such cases, Bus Éireann will use a selection process to allocate tickets for the spare seats.

The school transport system is over 55 years of age since it began with free education. The Deputy raised the issue of Kilcredan National School. A number of pilot projects were initiated over the past year or so. It is one of the pilot projects. We have to allow the full year to go through. The Department and Bus Éireann are evaluating all the pilot projects where they provide a valuable insight into the impact of increasing demand for the schemes and the potential for integrating public transport with the school transport system where it is possible, which is not always possible in rural areas. Rural areas do not have the public transport that is often sighted in urban areas or large towns. We are predominantly dependent on the school transport system. We are evaluating the 14 pilot projects, of which Kilcredan was one. I understand that the Deputy and others have raised this issue each year over the past number of years. When the pilot projects have been evaluated, we will try to find the best possible solution for students, parents and the entire community of Kilcredan National School.

See this speech in context