Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

345. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if any guidelines exist relating to the maximum distance that a child should be required to travel for education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36924/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2023/24 school year over 163,800 children, including over 136,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 20,200 pupils with special educational needs, and 7,400 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine were 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.

Over 140,000 mainstream tickets have issued for the 2024/2025 school year, which is already 3% more than the total tickets issued for the full 2023/2024 school year.

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 the School Transport Schemes, children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 kms from and are attending their nearest national school. At post primary level, they are eligible where they reside not less than 4.8 kms from and are attending their nearest post primary school/education centre. Distance is determined by the Department/Bus Éireann and rules have regard to ethos and language.

Bus Éireann is responsible for the planning and timetabling of school transport routes on behalf of my Department. Bus Éireann endeavours, within available resources, to ensure that each eligible child has a reasonable level of school transport service in the context of the Scheme nationally.

In relation to mainstream school transport, where practicable and subject to consideration of costs and logistics, routes are planned to avoid an eligible child having to travel more than 2.4 km at primary level and 3.2 km at post primary level to or from a pick up/set down point or to have travel and waiting times in excess of 1.5 hours at primary level and 2.5 hours at post primary level per day. Routes are planned on the basis of the locations of children who are eligible only.

In relation to pupils travelling on the School Transport Scheme for Children with Special Educational Needs, it is not always possible to secure a suitable placement in a local school and children are occasionally required to travel some distance to their school of attendance, due to the specialist nature of the placement involved. Bus Éireann regularly review services where children are travelling longer distances and and where possible, adjustments may be made to the service to reduce the travel time.

If families have any particular queries they can contact School Transport Section directly at school_transport@education.gov.ie where officials in the Department will be happy to assist.