Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Senators for raising this matter today. School transport is a very significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on the Department's behalf and covering over 82 million km annually. Approximately 113,000 children, including more than 8,000 children with special needs, are transported in approximately 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

The main objective of my Department's school transport scheme is to support the safe transport to and from school of children who would have difficulty travelling, for reasons of distance, to their nearest school if transport is not supported. I will explain the relevant changes to the primary school transport scheme more fully so the Senators will have a better understanding of them.

With effect from the 2012-13 school year, eligibility under the closed school rule will cease and eligibility for school transport will be confined to those children who reside not less than 3.2 km from and are attending their nearest national school, as determined by my Department and Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language. It is important to note that all existing eligible children who are not attending their nearest school will retain their school transport eligibility for the duration of their primary education cycle provided there is no change to their current circumstances.

It is a significant concession on the part of the Department that a child attending a school will receive school transport to that school for the duration of the child's time in the school. We argued for this concession but this in itself has led to the anomalous situations which the Senators have described. These situations will continue to arise during that transitional phase. The new cohort of pupils will follow the new arrangements.