Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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536. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27876/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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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.

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

Routes are planned so that, as far as possible, no eligible child will have more than 2.4 kilometres to travel to a pick-up point. Children living off the main route of a service are generally expected to make their own way, or to be brought to convenient pick-up points along the main route. Home pick-ups were never envisaged as being part of the Primary School Transport Scheme as the cost involved on a national level would be prohibitive.

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