Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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324. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cases in which taxis are engaged to transport children to schools; the number of school children involved; and the amount spent annually per county. [13528/17]

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

Currently 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.

In general, children with special educational needs are eligible for school transport if they are attending the nearest recognised mainstream school that is resourced, to meet their special educational needs under Department of Education and Skills' criteria.

Bus Éireann is responsible for the planning and timetabling of school transport routes. Bus Éireann endeavours, within available resources, to ensure that each eligible child has a reasonable level of school transport service.

Where practicable, and subject to consideration of cost and logistics, the Department will consider, based on information provided by the SENO, Parents/Guardians, School Authorities etc. the provision of specific/individual transport arrangements in circumstances where travel in the company of other children is not deemed feasible.  

These services are subject to periodic review and may be withdrawn and/or replaced with an alternative service/grant where circumstances change. Examples of such changed circumstances, which are not exhaustive, include other children applying for transport or a child’s independence increasing to the extent that an individual service is no longer necessary.

Bus Éireann has advised that there are currently over 11,500 children travelling on taxi services each school day.

The approximate cost of these services on a per County basis is as follows:-