Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 201: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the consequences in terms of availability of school transport for the next school year for catchment boundary children as a result of the improved safety measures on school transport buses; and if her Department will ensure that as a result of these safety measures, no student is left without transport to the school of their choice once they have made their way to the catchment boundary. [9814/06]

Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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 his or her 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 to the nearest pick up point within that catchment area.

The number of spare seats available will not be known until all other eligible children travelling to the post-primary centre in the catchment area in which they reside have been assessed for transport. Every effort will be made to determine the number of such seats available well in advance of the next school year.

Parents who have enrolled or intend to enrol their children in schools outside of the catchment area in which they reside are advised to acquaint themselves with the terms of the school transport scheme as transport cannot be guaranteed for such pupils.