Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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201. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children who are still awaiting school transport places in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49088/22]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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202. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children who are still awaiting school transport places nationwide; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49089/22]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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205. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when school transport will be provided to all students who are eligible for same; the efforts that are being made to resolve this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49093/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 201, 202 and 205 together.

School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021.

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.

As you are aware, in July 2022, Government announced funding for the waiving of school transport scheme fees for the coming school year as part of a wider package of cost of living measures.

School Transport ticket registration for the 2022/23 school year closed on 29 July by which time almost 130,000 applications/registrations were received for mainstream school transport. This figure includes 44,299 new applications as well as roll-overs from the previous school year.

There has been an increase in tickets allocated across all counties, with an increase of 18% in the number of tickets issued to eligible pupils compared to start of the 2021/2022 school year and an increase of 27% in the number of tickets issued to concessionary pupils compared to the start of the 2021/2022 school year.

The normal eligibility criteria of the scheme still apply.

Pupils at primary level are eligible where they live no less than 3.2 kilometres from and are attending their nearest primary school.

At post-primary level students who live no less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest post-primary school/education centre are deemed eligible.

All children who are eligible and who completed the application and registration process on time will be accommodated in the 2022 school year. In addition, pending completion of the outcome of the full review of the School Transport Scheme, temporary Alleviation Measures at post-primary level be continued for the 2022/2023 school year. Under these measures, which were initially introduced in 2019, transport will provided for post-primary pupils who are eligible for transport to their nearest school and are attending their second nearest school and who applied by the 29th April and registered for a ticket by the 29th July.

Any pupils/students who do not meet these criteria are deemed not eligible, or otherwise known as concessionary, applicants and are allocated a ticket based on the availability of a seat on when all eligible children have been catered for.

The information cannot be provided in the manner requested by the Deputy as numbers are still being finalised for the 2022/23 school year. A small number of on time applications are still in the process of being assessed.

Bus Éireann will continue to process applications and to issue tickets as soon as extra buses and drivers are sourced and become available to provide transport for the higher numbers qualifying for the service. Where additional services may need to be put in place for eligible children, any capacity on these services will be offered to concessionary applicants.

Following discussions with Minister McGrath and officials in DPER as part of the budgetary process some additional funding has been approved for the scheme which will allow officials in consultation with Bus Éireann to consider and evaluate where temporary additional capacity may be available.

The initial focus will be where families applied on time and who previously held concessionary tickets, to alleviate the impact of the increased demands on the scheme for those families.However, it is important to stress that this is subject to capacity considerations. Constraints in sourcing vehicles and drivers in certain areas of the country may also mean that it may take a number of weeks to explore solutions for additional capacity.