Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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154. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a person (details supplied) is not being accommodated on school transport despite appeals being made. [43990/18]

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.

Children are generally eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school.

Children who are not eligible for school transport can be facilitated where spare seats are available after eligible children have been accommodated. 

Where the number of ineligible children exceeds the number of spare seats available Bus Éireann allocates tickets for the spare seats on the basis of an agreed selection process.

Bus Éireann has advised that the child in question, who is not eligible for school transport, was unsuccessful in obtaining a seat for the 2018/2019 school year.

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