Written answers
Tuesday, 8 October 2019
Department of Education and Skills
School Transport Administration
Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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72. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when his Department will provide the Ombudsman for Children with a detailed measurement of routes and mileage of the distance between Quin and Ennis, County Clare, and Quin and Tulla, County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40565/19]
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.
In general, children are eligible for school transport where they meet the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school.
Bus Éireann determines distance eligibility by measuring the shortest traversable route, which may be either pedestrian or vehicular from a family's home to their nearest school.
The terms of the scheme are applied equitably on a national basis
The Department has sought this information from Bus Éireann and will forward same to the Ombudsman directly once received.
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