Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 120: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills with regard to the withdrawal of school transport in school (details supplied) in County Cork, if he will clarify the number of eligible and concessionary pupils who availed of the service in the 2010-2011 school year on each route; the number of pupils disqualified as eligible pupils for the 2011/2012 school year arising from revised eligibility criteria as published in the value for money review of school transport; and the financial savings being made on each of these routes by the withdrawal of this service. [21768/11]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Changes to the School Transport Schemes were announced in Budget 2011 and derive from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the Scheme.

The decisions announced include the uniform application of the distance requirement, the cessation of the Closed/Central School Rule (CSR), an increase in the minimum number of eligible children required to establish or retain a service and the introduction of charges for eligible primary pupils.

Bus Éireann has identified a number of services that will be withdrawn from the commencement of the 2011-12 school year where the number of applications received from eligible pupils has fallen below the minimum number required to retain a school transport service. Bus Éireann is continuing to monitor the situation and some services may be restored if late applications/payments are received.

The list of the services in question is available on my Department's website and includes details of the number of eligible pupils that have applied for school transport for 2011-12 school year. This number of eligible pupils is the same as the number of eligible pupils that travelled to the schools in question last year. Pupils applying for concessionary transport are not considered when calculating the minimum number requirement.

As is currently the position, families of eligible pupils, for whom there is no school transport service available, may apply for the remote area grant towards the cost of making private transport arrangements.

The cost of individual routes or services is regarded as commercially sensitive. However, the estimate is that savings of €3 million will accrue from the combination of the changes. It is essential to stress that the wider context within which all these changes are taking place, is a situation of the most serious financial difficulties. Under the four year recovery plan, there is a requirement to deliver savings of €17 million on the school transport budget and these measures are an integral part of this.