Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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95. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the meetings that have taken place in his Department since June 2016 on restructuring the school transport scheme; his plans to reform the scheme; and the number of tenders for school buses that were issued to date in 2017. [49653/17]

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

Currently over 114,000 children, including over 11,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,500 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

The purpose of the 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. 

In general, children are eligible for school transport if they meet the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school.

There are no plans to change the current eligibility criteria for school transport and the terms of the scheme are applied equitably on a national basis.

Arising from commitments in the Programme for Government, a review the Concessionary Charges and Rules element of the School Transport Scheme was undertaken. This report is published on my Department's website. The report on the Review of the Criteria and Guidelines of the School Transport Appeals Board has also been published on the Department's website.

Bus Éireann has advised that a total of 1,094 operating boards were opened for tender in 2017 to date.