Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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188. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his policy on the distance a student must live from a school in order to qualify for the provision of a place on a school bus service; and his views on the matter in view of the commitments to tackle climate change and in the context of an overall goal to reduce the use of private cars for transport. [20750/19]

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

There are currently over 117,500 children, including over 13,000 children with special educational needs, transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

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.

Under the terms of the School Transport Schemes children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 kms from and are attending their nearest national school, and at post primary level where they reside not less than 4.8 kms from and are attending their nearest post primary school/education centre as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

Distance eligibility is determined by Bus Éireann by measuring the shortest traversable route from the child’s home to the relevant school. The terms of the School Transport Schemes are applied equitably on a national basis.

My Department allocates a significant amount of funding each year to provide transport services through the School Transport Scheme. In doing so, this likely displaces a number of road vehicle journeys which would otherwise take place.

There are currently no plans to amend the distance criteria of the School Transport Scheme.