John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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634. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a taxi service will be made available for children availing of the July provision in 2020; if so, the application process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15476/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills.

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 2019/20 school year over 120,000 children, including over 14,200 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 €219m in 2019.

With regard to transport arrangements for the Summer Programme my Department will provide grant funding to support families with the cost of transport arrangements for those children who are eligible for school transport and who have been approved to participate in the school based Summer Programme.

Schools are required to identify children who are on a School Transport service or who are in receipt of a grant. School Transport Section will be in contact with schools and families in regard to the arrangements for payment.

Grant payment is based on the distance that a family reside from their child’s school of attendance. The calculation is based on four trips per day (home to school and school to home, morning and afternoon) multiplied by the number of days a child attends school for the programme. The current rate of grant is 39.12 cent per kilometre for the first 6,437 kilometres travelled and 21.22 per kilometre for each kilometre travelled thereafter.