Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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781. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will support an application for the provision of school bus transport for 14 students from Emly, County Tipperary, who require school bus transport into post primary schools (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13779/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, over 147,900 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

In addition, school transport scheme services are being provided in the current school year for over 3,800 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.

The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.

Children are eligible for transport at post primary level where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest post primary school/education centre as determined by the department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

A minimum number of 10 eligible children residing in a distinct locality, as determined by Bus Éireann, are required before consideration may be given to the establishment or retention of school transport services, provided this can be done within reasonable cost limits.

Children who are eligible for school transport and who have completed the application process on time will be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.

Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who completed the application process on time, will be considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated; such seats are referred to as concessionary seats.

Because of the nature of concessionary transport for non-eligible children and the priority of providing places for eligible children, there may be an excess of demand over supply for concessionary places, in these cases Bus Éireann will allocate tickets for spare seats using an agreed selection process.

Temporary Alleviation Measures at post-primary level will be continued pending completion of the review of the School Transport Scheme. This will mean that transport arrangements will continue to be provided for a number of post-primary students who are attending their second nearest school, who have applied and registered on time and who live more than 4.8km from their nearest school.

Parents of a child wishing to avail of school transport services are required to apply on-line on Bus Éireann website at www.buseireann.ie

For 2023/24 school year, the closing date for new applications is Friday 28 April 2023. Any new applications made after the closing date are considered late applications and families are not guaranteed a seat.The Bus Éireann family portal will be open to accept payments/medical card details from the 3 April 2023 until 9 June 2023. Payment made after the deadline date will be deemed late and a seat may not be available to families at that stage.

Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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782. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will request that Bus Éireann school transport review the current school bus route for a school (details supplied); if she will request that Bus Éireann reconfigures this route to include the home of a student so that they can avail of school transport; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13782/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, over 147,900 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

In addition, school transport scheme services are being provided in the current school year for over 3,800 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.

The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.

Children are eligible for transport at post primary level where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres 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 school transport services are reviewed over the summer months. Arising from this review, routes may be altered, extended or withdrawn depending on the number and location of eligible children who will be availing of school transport for the following school year.

Children who are eligible for school transport and who have completed the application process on time will be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.

Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who completed the application process on time, will be considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated; such seats are referred to as concessionary seats.

Under the terms of the scheme, the availability of concessionary transport varies from year to year based on the capacity on the buses running on all of the various routes and the number of eligible children accommodated on each route.

Bus Éireann has advised that the child referred to by the Deputy is not eligible for school transport under the terms of the school transport scheme as they do not meet the distance criteria and was unsuccessful in obtaining a seat on board a school transport service for the 2022/23 school year as no service is available from where they reside.