Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 39: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the closed school rule as applied under the school transport scheme was, and is, a legally binding contract between the schools and his Department; if an evaluation study has been carried out to see if school transport can be provided more efficiently; the schools that were involved in the value for money review of the scheme and if any of those schools were closed schools; and if he will consider using the model already in use by an organisation (details supplied) to appoint one transport company to cover the entire school transport contract. [19032/11]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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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.

Changes to school transport services relating to the Closed School Rule 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. As part of this review, a sample study was undertaken of 92 randomly selected schools served with school transport under the CSR. Available statistics, based on the sampling undertaken indicate that the impact of this second 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. The review also considered a number of possible approaches through which the State can seek to support transport to school in line with the overall objectives for the support of school transport. However, the report concluded that, particularly in the context of complexities of deciding on eligibility for school transport, procuring school transport and developing networks for school transport, a single national organiser with a regional dimension to operate the scheme is required.

The report further concluded that in the medium term the single national organiser should continue to be Bus Éireann.