Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 459: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position of an application for a bus pass for a student (details supplied) in County Kildare; if there is vacancies on the bus route; the criteria that determines the students application for such a vacancy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30534/07]

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 Transport Liaison Officer for Co. Kildare and Bus Éireann have advised that the transport service under the school transport scheme is operating to capacity. The family in question should continue to liaise with Bus Éireann regarding the availability of catchment boundary seats in the future.