John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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85. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a school bus ticket will be provided to a person (details supplied). [15712/17]

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 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.

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 in question is not eligible for school transport and may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only which is subject to a number of conditions including the availability of spare seats on an existing service.

In this regard, Bus Éireann has advised that the family applied late for school transport and as the service is currently operating to capacity no additional tickets can be issued.

The terms of the Post Primary School Transport Scheme are applied equitably on a national basis.