Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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503. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if provisions can be made to allow a mainstream student travel on the same school transport provided by his Department through the SEN system as a sibling with special needs in cases in which the mainstream student is not attending the nearest school but willing to pay for their ticket and there is space on the bus (details supplied). [27327/17]

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.

Under the terms of the Department's School Transport Scheme for Children with Special Educational Needs, applications for transport provision should only be completed in circumstances where children are not in a position to avail of standard school transport services.

The Department and Bus Éireann are very conscious of the specialised nature of transport provision for children with special educational needs. This is reflected in the standard of dedicated service provided and the fact that these services are generally planned and timetabled to operate on a door-to-door basis. In certain cases, the Department also provides funding to schools for the employment of escorts to accompany children whose care and safety needs require this level of support while they travel to and from school.

Given the concerns regarding the welfare of these children with special educational needs, it is not practical to make these services available to children who are capable of travelling on standard mainstream school transport services.

Children who are attending mainstream schools may apply for school transport in accordance with the terms of the Department’s School Transport Schemes for Primary and Post Primary Schools.