Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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264. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a person (details supplied) is not eligible for a bus ticket to attend college in County Cavan in view of the fact that their two older siblings are eligible for same. [35797/18]

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

The purpose of my Department's 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 the 2017/18 school year over 117,000 children, including over 12,000 children with special educational needs, were 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 at a total cost of almost €190 million in 2017.

Under the terms of my Department's Post Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for school transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

Bus Éireann, which operate school transport on behalf of my Department, has advised that when an application was made in 2017 for the child referred to by the Deputy, it was discovered that this family were not attending their nearest school and that the siblings of the child referred to by the Deputy were originally deemed eligible in error.  

Children who are deemed eligible in error retain their transport eligibility for the duration of their post primary education cycle provided there is no change to their current circumstances.

However, as the child in question is not attending his nearest education centre he is not eligible for school transport under the terms of the scheme.

The terms of this scheme are applied equitably on a national basis.