Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome this opportunity to raise school transport arrangements as they apply to the Salesian secondary college, Pallaskenry, County Limerick. The position is that the children travelling to the school are from rural and urban areas. Since 1967, the school has shared a catchment area with city schools. Slightly more than 50% of the its student population come from the western suburbs of Limerick city and in many cases these students live closer to the college than any other school in the city to which they would have a chance of gaining admission. In the early 1970s, Mungret college, which served the same catchment area as the Salesian secondary college, closed and Mount Trenchard Mercy convent in Foynes closed in the 1980s. Students from Kildimo, a village near the Salesian college, and other areas closer to the city have traditionally attended the school and availed of free school transport. Many children from Limerick city who experienced difficulties securing a place in schools in their locality travelled to the Salesian college and their younger siblings then attended the school at a later date.

Students from throughout the county catchment area may travel into the city using the school transport scheme, whereas students in the city's suburbs will have to pay privately under recent changes to travel to the Salesian college. Many students in the catchment area cannot get to the school because no transport services are available. National schools in Shauntrade and Adare, for example, have 34 students in sixth class who would be expected to attend the college. The Salesian college shares a catchment area with the VEC school in Askeaton. Students from the west of the catchment area travel for convenience purposes — it is a shorter distance — to the Askeaton school, the next parish but one to Pallaskenry. The Pallaskenry catchment area, on the other hand, has traditionally been the area between the village and the city and the village and Adare.

The feeder schools for the Salesian college include Pallaskenry, Kildimo, Ballybrown, St. Nessan's, Mungret, and St. Paul's, Dooradoyle. The proposed new directive will result in school transport services being removed for students from Ballybrown, St. Nessan's, Mungret, and St. Paul's, Dooradoyle, which leaves the college with two feeder primary schools. Each of these has approximately 35 students, some of whom will decide to attend school in Limerick city because free transport will be available to the city. Children from rural areas will, therefore, be able to avail of free transport into Limerick city.

I ask that free school transport continue to be provided to students in the traditional catchment area of Pallaskenry in line with the position since 1967. The issue was examined on a number of occasions and each time it was decided to maintain the status quo. The benefits available to city schools should also be open to the Salesian college but the current cut-off point for availability of free school transport has been set at less than three miles from the college. The Salesian college has enjoyed a good reputation for more than 100 years during which the Salesian Fathers have given excellent service to the community. As the Minister will appreciate, the new directive has serious implications for the school. I ask that the current position, which has worked since 1967, be maintained and children who wish to attend the same school as their siblings and neighbours be allowed to do so. Some of the children in question have difficulty securing a place in schools in Limerick city. In addition, Pallaskenry is regarded as the natural choice of school for children in the locality.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Neville for raising this matter on the Adjournment. I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin. While I am not sure my response will be of great assistance to the Deputy, I will place on record the views of the Minister on the issue.

One of the main objects of the school transport scheme is to provide a basic level of service for children who live long distances from schools and might otherwise experience difficulty in attending regularly. Approximately 140,000 primary and post-primary pupils use the school transport scheme on a regular basis. The allocation for school transport in 2005 is €116.533 million, an increase of 6% on last year's outturn. In the region of 30% of the allocation will be expended this year on transport costs and grant-aid for children with special needs who represent about 6% of the overall number of children carried each day.

For the purposes of post-primary education provision, the country is divided into catchment areas, each of which has its own post-primary centre. Under the terms of the post-primary school transport scheme, a pupil is eligible for school transport if he resides 4.8 kilometres or more from the post-primary centre in the catchment area in which he lives. A post-primary centre is not necessarily a school building. It is usually a central point in the catchment area to which the distance from home is measured.

Eligible pupils who wish to attend post-primary schools in another catchment area may be allowed transport on school services from within the catchment boundary of the centre being attended, subject to there being room available on the school transport service and no additional cost to the State. The pupils themselves are responsible for getting to the catchment boundary or to the nearest school bus service within that catchment area.

An eligible pupil who is approved for catchment boundary transport is not guaranteed school transport for the duration of his education at that centre. As a concessionary measure, continued transport will depend on the availability of space on the school service to that centre in each school term.

A large number of pupils who reside in the Limerick city catchment area have been provided with full transport facilities to the Salesian college, Pallaskenry, because of difficulties encountered in previous years in securing placements in certain schools in Limerick city. The continued provision of full school transport facilities for these pupils and new applicants for school transport is being reviewed in the light of the outcome to the new centralised application system for enrolments for pupils in Limerick city which was put in place for the next school year. Catchment boundary transport will continue to be available to pupils enrolling in the Salesian college, Pallaskenry, subject to the terms of the scheme.