Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 44: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her Department will refund pupils who have been wrongly charged for transport due to a misinterpretation by her Department of the persons who should be covered by the catchment area boundary. [39158/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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For the purpose of the post-primary education scheme, the country has been divided into catchment areas, each of which has its own post-primary centre. Pupils who live 4.8 kilometres or more from the post-primary centre serving the catchment area in which they reside are eligible for transport to that centre under the scheme.

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 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 own 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.

If the Deputy has any particular area in mind where children may have been charged for a service that was not provided I will be glad to have it investigated.