Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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Question 82: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to an agreement involving his Department at a school (details supplied) in County Meath in respect of free school transport for children who were previously in the catchment areas of two schools which were amalgamated into the larger school; if this agreement is still in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16704/11]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that school transport arrangements under the Closed School Rule originated from the last major amalgamation of schools in the late 1960's. Under the Closed School Rule, transport is generally provided to the school of amalgamation for pupils who reside in a closed school area. However, over the course of the last forty two years, many parts of Ireland have experienced changes in population, the number of schools in an area may have increased and private transport is more widely available. While my Department acknowledges the importance of school transport, my Department must always seek to ensure that every service that is funded by the public is operated in a manner that delivers for pupils, parents and taxpayers alike. In light of this, the Closed School Rule changes to school transport services were announced in the 2011 Budget by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and derive from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the scheme.

It is important to stress that there are a number of dimensions to the cessation of the Closed School Rule (CSR). The first of these, which will be implemented from September 2011, involves the uniform application of the distance criterion to all pupils travelling under the primary transport scheme, including those travelling under the CSR. This means that children residing less than 3.2 kilometres from their school of amalgamation will be deemed ineligible for school transport. In such cases, these children may apply for concessionary transport.

The second element of the change is scheduled to take effect in September 2012 and will apply only in the case of pupils commencing their primary education from that date. This second element will restrict school transport eligibility for those pupils entering in September 2012, to pupils who meet the distance eligibility criterion and are travelling to their nearest school. Available statistics, based on sampling undertaken as part of the Value for Money Review, indicate that the impact of this change will be limited as the majority of pupils categorised under the CSR are in fact attending their nearest school and will not be affected by this change.

Before implementing this second main change which is proposed for 2012, my Department has requested Bus Éireann to conduct a detailed analysis of the "on the ground" impact for individual schools and the rural communities they serve. This analysis will be based on the most up to date information available on current school transport usage patterns and I expect to have this information available to me this summer. I will then have an opportunity to carefully examine the likely affects of this change well in advance of the 2012 implementation date.

Question No. 83 answered with Question No. 81.