Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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80. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of students, other than those with special educational needs who avail of school transport either on concessionary or non-concessionary basis over each of the past ten years, by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3714/17]

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

Currently in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

Bus Éireann has been requested to forward the information directly to the Deputy.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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81. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school transport bus routes that are in operation, other than those for children with special educational needs and those availed of under the remote area grant, over each of the past ten years in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3715/17]

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

Currently in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

Bus Éireann has been requested to forward the information directly to the Deputy.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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82. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school bus routes which have been eliminated or reduced due to lower numbers of eligible pupils, resulting in the loss of school transport for concessionary students previously availing of the service over each of the past ten years by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3716/17]

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

Currently in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.  Overall, the number of school transport bus routes has risen from 5,001 in 2011 to 5,256 in 2016.

Families of eligible children, for whom a school transport service was withdrawn as it fell below the minimum number, are eligible for the remote area grant towards the cost of making private transport arrangements.

The level of detailed information requested by the Deputy is not available for each of the past ten years. The following table shows the number of services withdrawn by county over the last eight years and the overall number of children affected by these withdrawals, total figures are not available for all of the  years.  It is important to note that these are gross and not net figures. Additional routes have also been added, which are not reflected in these numbers.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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83. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school bus routes which have been downsized as a result of normal operations over each of the past ten years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3717/17]

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

Currently in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

Bus Éireann has advised that routes are organised annually to cater for the children who are eligible for school transport in advance of the new school year, also taking into account the number of children who are finished in school.

The vehicle used to operate a particular route may be changed, for example a route may be combined with another, but the capacity of the vehicle used would continue to be sufficient to cater for the number of children who are eligible for school transport.

I understand Bus Éireann do not retain the details of vehicle changes and/or circumstances where the number of seats available have been reduced. Therefore the information requested by the Deputy is not available.