Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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299. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to ensure that the criteria of a transport service (details supplied) is amended to enable more children avail of it; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24544/23]

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 primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 kilometres from and are attending their nearest national school, and 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.

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.

Bus Éireann has advised that the service referred to by the Deputy in this case, is a 12 seater service which was sanctioned for Ukrainian pupils and commenced service in December 2022. Bus Éireann have confirmed they received no mainstream applications for this school for the 22/23 school year.

Families are requested to apply and pay/enter medical card details before the closing date on their Bus Éireann family portal account in order to be considered for transport. The closing date for new applications for the 2023/2024 school year was the 28th April 2023.

New applications are considered as:

• Pupils who will be attending junior infants in primary school or first year in post-primary school for the first time in 2023.
• Pupils that may move home address or will be attending a new school in the 2023/24 school year

Any new applications made after the closing date are considered late applications and families are not guaranteed a seat. A late application may mean that a ticket is not available.