Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 356: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if, given that her Department is ultimately responsible for the welfare and protection of children, she will take immediate action to guarantee health and safety and child protection standards for children with special needs in cases where Bus Éireann contracts out its school transport to taxi drivers. [14199/06]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if, given that her Department is ultimately responsible for school transport and contracts out the provision of school transport to Bus Éireann, she will take immediate action to guarantee heath and safety and child protection standards for children with special needs in cases where Bus Éireann contracts out its school transport to taxi drivers. [14204/06]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 402: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will abolish the practice of Bus Éireann handing over responsibility of school transport to taxi drivers or hackney drivers and introduce instead an appropriate bus service. [14205/06]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 403: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if, until she introduces an appropriate school bus service for the transport of all special needs children, she will immediately introduce an escort, qualified and trained to work with special needs children, to accompany children whose school transport has been contracted out to taxi and hackney drivers at all times during their journey to and from school. [14206/06]

Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 356 and 401 to 403, inclusive, together.

Bus Éireann is responsible for the day to day operation of the school transport service on behalf of my Department.

Over 135,000 children are carried on school transport services each day to primary and post-primary schools including approximately 8,000 children with special educational needs. The cost of transporting children with special educational needs, including grants, now accounts for about 33% of the overall allocation for school transport. The allocation for school transport in 2006 is €152 million.

Bus Éireann endeavours to provide the best possible transport service for children with special needs. The size of vehicle required is determined by the number of special needs pupils requiring the service and the suitability of the vehicle to meet the requirements of the pupil. The Deputy will appreciate that it is not always possible to facilitate a child, by virtue of his or her special needs, on a regular school transport service. Furthermore, many children with special needs travel long distances from home to school and individual school transport, such as a taxi service, may be deemed to be the most suitable and appropriate mode of transport.

In the education sector, vetting is available in respect of prospective employees of children in detention schools, as well as special needs assistants and bus escorts accompanying children with special needs. My colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science with special responsibility for children, Deputy Brian Lenihan, announced a doubling of the number of staff employed in the Garda central vetting unit, which has been relocated to Thurles under the Government's decentralisation programme, to ensure that it can handle a greater volume of requests from employers. The provision of additional staff resources will enable the Garda Síochána's vetting services to be extended to all persons working with children and vulnerable adults. This will include teachers, caretakers, bus drivers and others working with children, whether on a full-time or part-time basis.

My Department allocates funding to schools to enable them to employ escorts on school transport services. These escorts are specifically engaged by the schools to cater for children with special educational needs whose care requirements are such as to necessitate continuous support. These escorts are a valuable service for children with special needs who require assistance.