Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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167. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary and secondary school students, respectively, availing of the school transport scheme. [52641/19]

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 the 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 if they meet the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school. 

In the 2018/2019 school year over 117,500 children, including over 13,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres at a cost of over €200m in 2018. 

Bus Éireann has confirmed that there are over 120,000 children availing of school transport in the 2019/20 school year, including over 14,200 children with special educational needs, and of which over 38,000 children are availing of transport to primary schools and over 68,000 to post primary schools.