Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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85. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will ask her Department to urgently liaise with Bus Éireann to approve the extension of a school bus route (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59738/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education.

The purpose of the 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 Primary School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 3.2 kms from and are attending their nearest national school as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.

Bus Éireann is responsible for the planning and timetabling of school transport routes. 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.

Routes are planned so that, as far as possible, no eligible child will have more than 2.4 kilometres to travel to a pick-up point. Children living off the main route of a service are generally expected to make their own way, or to be brought to convenient pick-up points along the main route.

Bus Éireann has advised that this family referred to by the Deputy is attending their nearest school and are eligible for school transport under the terms of the Scheme.

Bus Éireann also advise the family referred reside 1.7 kms from a pick up point. This is considered to be a reasonable level of service in the general operation of the School Transport Scheme.

Bus Éireann has advise that the pick-up point referred to by the Deputy is considered to be as safe as other pick-up points being used by children travelling under the School Transport Scheme throughout the country. Parents or guardians are expected to make suitable arrangements to bring their children to and from the school bus, taking whatever safety precautions they may deem necessary to do so.

Home pick-ups are not part of the Primary School Transport Scheme.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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86. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will review the operation of the school transport scheme in view of the hundreds of children left without seats this term; and if she will commit to ensuring that no child is denied access to education due to where they live. [59601/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, 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 and Youth.

As part of the recommendations of the School Transport Review, a number of School Transport pilots began in the 2024/2025 school year. These pilots are continuing for the current school year.

It was outlined at the time of the publication of the review that, given that the proposed changes to the eligibility criteria are likely to further increase demand for the scheme, it is prudent to implement the proposed changes on a phased basis.

In line with the recommendations arising from the review, the School Transport Section of my Department engaged with Bus Éireann to assess and identify where more pilots could be successfully delivered for the current school year.

A small number of new pilots have been selected, and the Department has provided sanction to Bus Éireann to review where additional capacity may be available for concessionary pupils who paid on time and would become eligible if the revised school transport scheme criteria was rolled out full. As part of these pilot routes, the distance criteria for pupils is 2km for primary and post primary and the need for a pupil to be attending their nearest school is removed.

Some of these pilots are up and running and the remainder are going through procurement. The sourcing of additional capacity can take time where a procurement process is required, and subsequent vehicle and driver safety compliance checks need to be completed.

These pilots 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.

Priority is given to provide school transport to pupils that are eligible under the current terms of the school transport scheme. Provision of additional services as pilot projects will be subject to the availability of vehicles and drivers in each area.

Implementation of the recommendations of the review will continue to be planned subject to resources being available to meet the increased demand.