Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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419. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of school bus transport for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25252/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. During the 2015/16 school year in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in approximately 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country, covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

Under the terms of my Department's Post Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for school transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest school as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language. The child referred to by the Deputy is eligible for school transport to the school in question. However, Bus Éireann has advised that payment details were not submitted until after the closing date and at this stage all tickets had been allocated and the service is now operating to capacity.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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420. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of school bus transport for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25253/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.

During the 2015/16 school year in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in approximately 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country, covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

Under the terms of my Department's Post Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for school transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest school as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

Bus Éireann has advised that the child referred to by the Deputy is not eligible for school transport. Bus Eireann has also advised that the number of applicants for concessionary seats on the service was greater than the number of seats available and the child in question was not successful in obtaining a seat.