Dept of Public Expenditure and Dept of Education in talks over school bus scheme
Talks between the Department of Public Expenditure and the Department of Education are ongoing over whether the school bus scheme will continue to include certain children after Minister John Halligan said he would fight for more funding to ease the problem.
Mr Halligan, the Minister of State for Training and Skills, said: "If I had my way all children, eligible or otherwise, should get school transport."
His comments came after it emerged that thousands of children might miss out on concessionary tickets on school buses, even though some buses might still have empty seats. Concessionary tickets apply to children who may not necessarily have a dedicated place on a school bus but can avail of a spare seat should one arise.
Minister Halligan told RTÉ radio’s Today with Miriam O’Callaghan show that he had intervened to stop a recommendation by the Department of Expenditure and Reform to have concessionary children taken off the scheme altogether.
“I actually stopped that from happening, that was the one power I had as Minister to stop that," he said.
The legality of the scheme that was put in place was put in for eligible children and special needs children, it never mentioned concessionary children, all of these are being carried in the scheme, the money that comes out of that scheme is not a special pot of money that's put in for school transport, it comes out of the education budget. I think we need to get our children to school.
Minister Halligan said the existing system was "one of the best in Europe" but "the problem is the service dates from 1968".
There has been a large increase in the number of concessionary children seeking to avail of the scheme in recent years and Minister Halligan has said extra spending of €4m would help alleviate the problem. Discussions between the two relevant departments are "ongoing at official level”, according to a government spokesperson.
A Department spokesman said €4m was the estimated additional cost per annum of extending capacity in some areas of significant demand for school bus transport to cater for some more concessionary pupils who complete the application process in time and who are 4.8km or more from their closest school and attending their second closest school.
"This is only intended to be applied for secondary school students and in areas where all eligible students have seats on buses and where a bigger bus or other modifications to a service can accommodate some more students on a concessionary basis," the spokesperson said.
