Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 112: To ask the Minister for Education and Science his views on whether the budget 2009 decision to increase the cost of school transport will cause more people to use their cars to bring their children to school, causing more traffic congestion and delays on roads. [38211/08]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The school transport scheme, which is operated by Bus Éireann on my Department's behalf, is primarily a rural based scheme which facilitates the transportation of over 134,000 children to primary and post-primary schools each day. The Deputy will be aware that the School Transport system is a very significant operation involving about 42 million journeys of over 82 million kilometres on 6,000 routes every school year.

The allocation for school transport in 2008 is €175.2 million and this has been increased by 12% to €196 million in 2009, which given the difficult fiscal conditions shows the commitment of the Government to maintaining the scheme. In fact, since 1997 the allocation to school transport services has increased almost threefold.

I would point out that the charges for school transport had not been increased from 1998 until the third school term in the 2007/2008 school year despite the escalating costs of the service. A further increase was put in place at the start of the 2008/2009 school year.

The Budget 2009 increase in charges applies from the start of the 2009/2010 school year.

In the overall context and in order to minimise the overall effects, these charge increases have been confined to the 55,000 eligible post primary and children availing of concessionary transport. Charges will continue to be waived in the case of eligible post-primary children where the family is in possession of a valid medical card or over a further 19,000 children. Eligible children attending primary schools and children with special needs or about 54,000 children will still travel free. A maximum family rate will also be applied.

The total contribution from parents will still only represent about 7% of the overall allocation for school transport in 2009.

This scheme aims to provide comfortable and safe transport for children travelling to and from school. Measures to ensure the highest standards in this regard include:

In recent years the phasing out of the 3 for 2 seating arrangement on both primary and post-primary services, providing all children with an adult seat each.

The addition of a considerable number of vehicles to address capacity shortfalls arising from the decision to provide each child with an individual seat and the equipping of all dedicated school buses.

Inspection by Bus Éireann using an independent agency to satisfy itself that all buses entering the School Transport Scheme have seat belts fitted to an appropriate standard, agreed with the Department of Transport.

In addition, Bus Éireann has put in place a random vehicle inspection process conducted by a leading independent external expert in this field.

In the light of these important supportive factors for parents in planning day to day travel arrangements for their children it is my hope that the numbers utilising the scheme will be maintained at current levels.

My Department has no evidence to suggest that parents of children currently availing of school transport are planning alternative modes of transport. In addition, a number of parents continue to apply for concessionary transport annually. My officials will continue to monitor this aspect with Bus Éireann over the coming months.