Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 188: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review school transport catchment boundaries in a location (details supplied) in County Kerry due to exceptional circumstances in the area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23386/11]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Under the current terms of my Department's Post Primary School Transport Scheme, pupils are eligible for transport if they reside 4.8 kilometres or more from their local post primary education centre, that is the centre serving the catchment area in which they reside.

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 'own' 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.

Changes in the School Transport Scheme were announced by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and derive from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the scheme. One of these changes includes the cessation of the use of the above catchment boundary system. Eligibility for school transport for all new pupils entering post-primary from the 2012/13 school year will be determined by the distance they reside from their nearest post-primary centre or school. Existing eligible post primary pupils will retain their eligibility for the duration of their post primary education cycle provided they continue to meet the terms of the current scheme.