John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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266. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of a request to provide school transport for a number of children from Mullinavat to New Ross; and if the applications for a place on the existing bus will be re-examined in view of the fact some qualify under the scheme. [39803/17]

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

During the 2016/17 school year almost 116,000 children, including some 12,000 children with special educational needs, were 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 generally eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest school.

Where families are not eligible for school transport they may apply on a concessionary basis only. Concessionary transport 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. Under the terms of the School Transport Schemes additional vehicles will not be introduced, nor will larger vehicles or extra trips using existing vehicles be provided to cater for children travelling on a concessionary basis.

For the 2017/18 school year the number of applications for transport on a concessionary basis exceeded the number of spare seats available on existing services in the Mullinavat area.

A number of families were not allocated seats during the subsequent selection process and they have been refunded their payment. However, these families should continue to liaise with their local Bus Éireann office as additional spare seats may become available during the school year.

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