Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the need to change school bus catchment boundaries in the Goatenbridge Ardfinnan area of County Tipperary in order to give local parents the choice of sending their children to schools in Clonmel; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23138/07]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, 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 s/he resides 4.8 kilometres or more from her/his local post primary education centre.

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 local 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 Programme for Government includes a commitment to review the school transport scheme, including catchment boundaries. My Department is currently considering how best to progress this task.