Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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170. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a refund or credit will be extended to pupils whose school bus tickets have been issued only in recent weeks and who have been charged for the full term up to the Christmas break. [43713/20]

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

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 my Department’s School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 3.2kms at primary and 4.8kms at post-primary and are attending their nearest School/Education Centre as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

School Transport services commenced on the 26th August for the 2020/21 school year. All children who are eligible for school transport and who applied and paid by the deadline have been accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.

The annual charge for school transport services is €100 per annum for primary children and €350 for post primary children with a maximum family charge of €220 for primary children only or €650 overall. The service is heavily subsidised, with less than 8% of the cost of the scheme being recouped from fare-paying pupils in 2019.

In view of the exceptional circumstances arising this year there will be a flexible approach adopted with regard to refunds on bus tickets. My Department is currently liaising with Bus Éireann in this regard.