Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 214: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason her Department has curtailed the school bus service from the Hollymount, County Mayo area to a school (details supplied); her views on whether a firm commitment was given that there would be no changes in the existing service; her further views on whether this is not the case; the alternative she proposes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38317/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under the terms of my Department's post-primary school transport scheme, a pupil is eligible for transport if he or she resides 4.8 km or more from her or his local post primary education centre, that is, the centre serving the catchment area in which he or she lives.

The scheme is not designed to facilitate parents who choose to send their children to a post-primary centre outside of the catchment area in which they reside. However, children who are fully eligible for transport to the post-primary centre in the catchment area in which they reside may apply for transport on a concessionary basis to a post-primary centre outside of their own catchment area, otherwise known as catchment boundary transport. These children can only be facilitated if spare seats are available on the bus after all other eligible children travelling to their post-primary centre have been catered for. Such children have to make their own way either to the catchment boundary or to the nearest pick up point within that catchment area.

The pupils in question who are enrolled in the school referred to by the Deputy in the details supplied have been facilitated with catchment boundary transport to another post primary centre. It has recently been established, however, that the pick-up for these pupils was located within the catchment area in which they reside. This is contrary to the terms of the post-primary school transport scheme. As a result, the pick-up point was changed by Bus Éireann to a point which is now within the catchment area being attended.