Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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184. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his office will contact a person (details supplied) regarding school transport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18680/17]

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

Currently almost 116,000 children, including some 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 km annually.

The purpose of my Department’s School Transport scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school. Under the terms the Post Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann.

The child in question is not eligible for school transport as he is not attending his nearest school.

Children who are not eligible for school transport may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only which is subject to a number of terms and conditions including the availability of spare seats on an existing service and payment of the annual charge; the closing date for receipt of payments for the 2016/17 school year was 29 July 2016.

Spare seats on school transport services are generally allocated during the first week in August; this child was not included in this allocation process as Bus Éireann did not receive payment until 13 August 2016, at which time all spare seats had been allocated. Bus Éireann has advised that a number of reminders, regarding the closing date for payments, were sent to all applicants during the month of July 2016.

The above information regarding this school transport application has previously been relayed to the family in question by both my Department and Bus Éireann.