Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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223. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if school transport will be provided in the case of persons (details supplied). [29757/20]

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. 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 Post Primary School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for school transport where they reside not less than 4.8kms from and are attending their nearest Post Primary School/Education Centre as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

All children who are eligible for school transport and who completed the application and payment process on time have been accommodated on school transport services for the 2020/21 school year where such services are in operation. The closing date for payment for the 2020/2021 school year was Tuesday 4th August 2020.

Bus Eireann has confirmed that both children of the first family to which the Deputy refers are attending their closest school and are eligible for school transport. Payment for the family was received on 07/09/2020 and as such is late.

Bus Éireann has also confirmed that the child of the second family referred to by the Deputy is not attending his closest school and is therefore not eligible for transport. Payment was received for this pupil on 07/09/2020 and as such is late.

Late applicants and/or families who pay late are not guaranteed a seat and will only be allocated a seat if capacity is available once seats are allocated to those families who applied and paid on time for transport services for the 2020/2021 school year. In addition, payments or submission of medical card details for Post-Primary seats completed or made after 4th August 2020 will be only considered when 50% capacity, required by new Covid19 public health guidelines, is achieved on each route.

Given the health advice which my Department received from NPHET, my Department and Bus Éireann are presently focused on achieving 50% capacity across post-primary school transport services. The timeframe for this will vary from route to route but all efforts are being made to do so as soon as possible. Following the completion of this, further tickets will be issued to applicants where there is spare capacity on services. In the event of not securing a ticket where no capacity exists, or on cancellation, a full refund will be issued.