Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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49. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the outcome of the school transport review; the measures he plans to implement to deal with difficulties which arose for many families prior to the commencement of the 2016-17 school year, with particular reference to the availability of concessionary tickets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10125/17]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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73. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to improve the criteria for school transport eligibility, in view of many difficulties that have arisen in recent years particularly for some families in more rural and isolated areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10126/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 49 and 73 together.

School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.

Currently over 115,000 children, including almost 12,000 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.

The purpose of the Primary and Post Primary School Transport Schemes is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school.

Children are eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criterion and are attending their nearest school.

The terms of the scheme are applied equitably on a national basis.

The Programme for Government committed to a review of the concessionary charges and rules element of the School Transport Scheme.  This review was published in December 2016.  As part of the review process I also established an Oireachtas Cross Party Working Group to feed into the review and that group met to discuss school transport issues.  The review published in December made recommendations on both the charges and the rules element of concessionary school transport. 

With regard to the charges for concessionary school transport the recommended course of action was to continue with the current position whereby charges remain in place for those in receipt of concessionary places.  I agree with this recommendation on the basis that those applying for concessionary transport are making a conscious decision to do so and understand the implications of this choice at the time of application.

The report also recommended that the number of concessionary places should be reduced in line with the rules introduced in 2012 on a phased basis.  Previous plans to advance this option were put on hold, pending the completion of the review.

However upon consideration of the review and discussions at the Cross Party Working Group I decided that there should be no planned programme of downsizing in the coming years except in line with normal operational decisions within the current scheme.

In addition to concessionary transport, a range of submissions relating to the School Transport Scheme generally were received from members of the Oireachtas through the Cross Party Group.

Arising from this, a number of areas were identified which require further examination including options on the implementation of the minimum numbers required for the retention of a service; options on instances where errors occur in categorisation of eligibility and the process around the refund of charges paid in cases where a ticket does not issue.

Finally, the Programme for Government also commits to a review of the criteria and guidelines of the School Transport Appeals Board. This review is currently underway.