Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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153. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the full year cost of restoring school transport services to the criteria that existed pre-2011. [51127/17]

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 changes introduced in Budget 2011, derived from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the Scheme and encompassed a number of elements such as national application of the distance rule of 3.2 kilometres at primary level, the cessation of the Closed/Central School Rule at primary level, the cessation of catchment boundary area to determine eligibility at post primary level, the increase from seven to 10 eligible pupils residing in a distinct locality to retain or establish a school transport service and the introduction of charges at primary level.

Given that school transport is a demand led service it is difficult to cost school transport services on the basis of restoring the Scheme to the criteria that existed pre 2011. However, in general the unit cost for transporting mainstream children is some €1,000 per annum, while the unit cost for transporting children with special educational needs is €7,000 or €9,000 when the provision of escorts are included.

During the 2010/11 school year almost 124,000 children were availing of school  transport including over 8,000 children with special educational needs.