Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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606. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the provisions being made for families nationwide who have not found a place for their child on a school bus in 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22296/20]

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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622. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if an overview will be provided of the arrangements she plans to put in place to deal with primary and secondary students who have been refused concessionary bus tickets in 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22437/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 606 and 622 together.

School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.

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.

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 scheme, children are eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria (3.2km at primary and 4.8km at post-primary) and are attending their nearest school as determined by my 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.

All children who are eligible for school transport and who completed the application and payment process on time for the 2020/2021 school year have been accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.

Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who complete the application process on time, are considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated; such seats are referred to as concessionary seats. The provision of a seat on a concessionary basis in a given year does not confer any continuing entitlement for that user in following years as concessionary places are entirely contingent on there being spare seats once eligible users are provided for.