Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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157. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when it is expected a review of the school transport system is likely to be undertaken with particular reference to the objective of the streamlining of school transport in rural areas in which persons have been greatly inconvenienced by changes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25005/17]

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 kilometres 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 of this Scheme in general children are eligible for transport where they meet the requisite distance and are attending their nearest school / education centre as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

Changes to the eligibility criteria for my Department's School Transport Scheme were announced in December 2010 by the then Government as part of measures contained in Budget 2011 and derived from recommendations contained in the Value for Money review of the scheme.

The school transport approach compliments the overall Department policy which is to ensure that specific school accommodation needs for defined geographical areas are addressed in an orderly fashion.

Children who had an eligibility for school transport prior to the introduction of these changes retain this eligibility for the duration of their post primary school education provided there is no change in their circumstances though siblings applying for school transport from 2012 onwards are subject to the revised eligibility criteria.

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. As part of the review process I established an Oireachtas Cross Party Working Group to feed into the review. The review was published in December 2016 and 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.