Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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383. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills details of the current policy regarding maximum commute times for special needs children availing of school transport services; the way in which the Department ensures that transport arrangements are in line with the needs of these students, particularly in respect of minimising travel times; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43135/24]

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 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.

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 kms at primary level and 3.2 kms 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 and occasionally required to travel some distance to their school of attendance, due to the specialist nature of the placement involved. However, if a concern is raised regarding the level of time a pupil is travelling on a service, this is investigated by School Transport Section and Bus Éireann and any adjustments that can be made to the service to reduce the travel time are examined.

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.