Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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358. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the criteria assessed when choosing the location of the pilot schemes for school transport. [29887/24]

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 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

The total cost of the scheme in 2023 was €382.02m.

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.

The School Transport Scheme 2030 report has now been published. It marks the largest review of the School Transport Scheme since it was established in 1967. The Government is committed to working to achieve the report’s recommendation of expanding access to the scheme so that an additional 100,000 pupils can be carried by 2030.

Throughout the review, the value of the School Transport Scheme to both families and in supporting wider Government policies has been very apparent. School transport not only plays an important part in supporting children's access to education, but it also aligns to wider Government objectives.

Overall, the recommended changes to the future operation of the Scheme concern: expansion of the current eligibility criteria, addressing current operational challenges, charges and grants, and, over time, moving towards better integration with public transport to ensure the best value for money to the Exchequer.

A phased implementation of the review’s recommendations will begin in September 2024. This will include a shared effort between the Department of Education and the Department of Transport to pilot and introduce greater integration of transport networks with school transport routes.

The planned pilot projects in the 2024/2025 school year will provide valuable insights on the impact increased demand will have on the scheme, the potential to integrate public transport services with school transport services, and the facilitation of more sustainable modes of transport. These insights will give an indication of the scale of planning and implementation required for a national roll out of a revised School Transport Scheme, to include the integration of public transport and school transport services.

The pilot areas were chosen because of the many advantages as pilot areas: For the first pilot area, it is a busy public transport corridor, it had already been earmarked by the NTA for capacity enhancements; there are a number of post-primary schools on the route, and dedicated school transport services are operating in parallel along the corridor.

This pilot will examine the potential for re-routing to accommodate additional post-primary schools, and ensure capacity meets demand for eligible school transport scheme students. It affords the opportunity to integrate school transport and public transport services to support with some of the existing market supply constraints and to ensure maximum utilisation of public transport and school transport services in the area.

Building on a concept developed on the alignment of school transport with governmental policy on sustainability and connectivity, it utilises the cross functional experience and knowledge that Bus Éireann has developed from its years of administration and operation of the School Transport scheme, alongside its network of commercial and PSO services nationwide.

The second location was chosen as it builds on an existing proposal from the community. To this end, it is proposed that the pilot will support wider community travel/ mobility effort.

The School Transport Scheme and Public Transport integration project is a joint effort between the Department of Education and the Department of Transport, supported by the National Transport Authority and Bus Éireann.