John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Seanad for allowing me this opportunity to discuss the issue of school transport. To put things in context, I should explain that the school transport scheme is an administrative scheme established in 1968. It was created to facilitate equality of access to primary and post-primary education for those children who, because of where they reside, might otherwise have difficulty in attending school regularly. It is a national scheme, the purpose of which continues to be to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school. It is not an absolute right, and requires minimum numbers of eligible children residing in a distinct locality before the service can be established and retained. It provides what is called a reasonable level of school transport service in the context of the scheme nationally.

Senators are familiar with the fact that school transport is managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. During the 2016-2017 school year almost 116,000 children, including 12,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in more than 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country, covering more than 100 million km. In 2016, the total cost of school transport amounted to €182 million. This included direct transport services, grant payments and funding to schools for the employment of escorts to accompany children with special educational needs, whose care and safety needs are such as to require the support of an escort.

In general, children are eligible for school transport if they attend their nearest school and satisfy the requisite distance criteria of 3.2 km for primary children and 4.8 km for post-primary children. Families of eligible children, for whom no school transport service is available, are eligible for the remote area grant towards the cost of making private transport arrangements. No distance criterion applies for children with special educational needs, but these children must meet the Department’s criteria for special educational needs and must also be attending the nearest facility that is, or can be, resourced to meet their special educational needs. Children who are not eligible for school transport may avail of school transport on a concessionary basis only. Concessionary transport is subject to a number of terms and conditions, including the availability of spare seats after all eligible children have been catered for and payment of the charge, even if the child holds a medical card.

Again, many Senators are aware that changes to the school transport scheme were announced in budget 2011 and derive from recommendations in a comprehensive value for money review of the scheme. This is the scheme under which I am obliged to work. The changes announced included the cessation of the closed central school rule at primary level, the cessation of the catchment boundary areas system to determine eligibility at post-primary level, and an increase from seven to ten in the minimum number of eligible children required to establish or retain a service. As a consequence of these changes, the school transport approach now complements the overall Department policy, which is to ensure that specific school accommodation needs for defined geographical areas are addressed in an orderly fashion.

It is important to note that children who had an eligibility for school transport prior to the introduction of the changes retained this eligibility for the duration of their education at that school, provided there is no change in their circumstances. However, all new children, including siblings of existing eligible children are assessed for school transport eligibility under the revised criteria. Therefore, the school transport scheme is in a transitional phase. One result of the transition phase is that children in the same family or, indeed, area may have school transport eligibility to different schools. This transition period has also seen an increase in the number of children receiving concessionary school transport. The majority of these children have chosen to attend a school other than their closest school under the terms of the scheme.

The programme for Government committed to a review of the concessionary charges and rules element of the school transport scheme. This review was published in December 2016, and I decided, on consideration of the review, to continue with the current position regarding charges for concessionary transport. In addition, following consideration of the review and discussions with the cross-party Oireachtas group I established to feed into the review process, I decided there would be no planned programme of downsizing school buses in the 2016-17 school year. However, a detailed analysis of school transport services as they currently operate is now required, and I accept this. This analysis will involve an examination of existing routes and how these routes relate to the location of eligible children.

The major policy changes introduced from September 2012 will take a full post-primary cycle of six years and a full primary cycle of eight years to feed through the respective schemes. Given that those eligible children already in the system when the new rules were introduced retained their eligibility, we are now nearing the point where all eligibility is under the post-2012 school transport criteria. This means the number of eligible children on a significant number of services at primary and post-primary level is falling below the minimum number of ten for September 2017, and from September 2018 it is likely that there will be no new eligible children on these services. My Department has been working with Bus Éireann to assess the likely number of services due to be withdrawn because there are fewer than ten eligible children on the bus. As just explained, given that the transition phase from the old to the new criteria for school transport eligibility is nearing an end, it is very unlikely that the services falling below ten eligible children will reach ten eligible children in the future.

Having reviewed the position as outlined, I have decided that no service will be withdrawn in the coming school year where an eligible child is availing of the service, and there will be no planned programme of downsizing school buses for the next school year, from 2017 to 2018. There will be route changes and variations in line with normal operational decisions that occur from year to year, and any impacts in terms of increases or decreases of available places nationally is expected to be marginal, in line with what occurs every year. Significant changes will be necessary from September 2018 to ensure value for money in the school transport scheme and to ensure that school transport services are designed around eligible children on an equitable basis nationally. In light of this, I have asked the Department to work with Bus Éireann to carry out a detailed route analysis identifying where there will be substantive changes to the route network or vehicle size from September 2018 to reflect eligible children and put together a comprehensive communications plan to inform all parents of likely changes that will be implemented from September 2018.

Outside of the issue of concessionary school transport, the cross-party Oireachtas group made a number of submissions on the scheme generally. While a number of the submissions cannot be progressed because of the policy implications and the impact on the budget of the scheme, there are a number of areas where further examinations were made. These are options on instances where errors occur in categorisation of eligibility; a process around the refund of charges paid in cases where a ticket does not issue; options on the implementation of the minimum numbers required for the retention a service; a review of the guidelines for the School Transport Appeals Board; and options to improve customer service.

Bus Éireann continues to engage with officials in my Department on improving customer services and is examining the process around the refund of charges. I have agreed proposals on errors in categorisation under certain conditions to allow children retain eligibility for the remainder of their education at the school. In regard to the withdrawal of services, where a school can provide evidence that the minimum number will be attained within two years, then the service will be left in place, at my direction. The review of the School Transport Appeals Board has recently been submitted and I am considering this report.

To reiterate, the school transport scheme is significant. It transported more than 116,000 children on a daily basis over the last school year, and 12,000 of these children had special educational needs who were provided with a door to door service.This scheme costs €180 million and it is applied equitably on a national basis. Since I took over responsibility for the school transport scheme, I have endeavoured to do all I can possibly do. I have met all Oireachtas Members who asked to meet with me. I have met with representatives from their constituencies, families or others to do what I can do, but I am restricted by the criteria set down in 2011 and 2012 under the legislation. One of the big issues has been the minimum of ten children on a bus. Against the direction which I was asked to take in the matter, I decided not to take any bus off its route if the school could show that ten children would use the bus in the following year. I have set up an Oireachtas group for representatives from all parties to meet and make their suggestions on school transport. Many such suggestions have been made.

This system, which caters for 116,000 children, 12,000 of whom have special needs, is a very fine one. Are there flaws and small hiccups in it? Of course there are. When we are transporting so many children on so many vehicles for so many hours over so many miles - 100 million km every year - of course there will be some faults, but it has always been my aim for every eligible child to be transported to and from school. I ask Senators to bear all this in mind. As I have said, my plan is to continue to meet Members of the Oireachtas and to meet with the committee which I have set up. I have never turned down a request to meet with any Oireachtas Member, family, councillor or Minister to speak about the school transport scheme. I compliment the authorities which work with me. It is a difficult and complex scheme to run. It requires monitoring every day of the week to make sure the children we transport get to their destination and that every child with a special educational need is given the same rights as every other child. We successfully transport 12,000 such children every day.