The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, more than 149,000 children, including more than 18,000 children and young people with special educational needs, are transported daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. There has been an increase of 21% in tickets issued to eligible students and 38% in tickets issued on a concessionary basis in the 2022-23 school year compared to the 2021-22 sc…

I thank the Deputy very much. I appreciate her personal interest in this. I am a rural Deputy. I very much understand the importance of the school transport scheme. I will be clear that, as I have said, the geographical criteria currently require a student to live within 3.2 km of their nearest national school and to attend that school. At post-primary level, students must live within 4.8 km of their nearest school and attend that school or the next nearest. That was a concession that we gave. However, I appreciate…

I again emphasise and underline that I appreciate the importance of the school transport scheme and the importance of young people having the opportunity to attend the school that meets their needs. It is important to again raise the point that, at post-primary level, students had to live within 4.8 km of and attend their nearest school, but we have extended provision to the next nearest school. If the next nearest school happens to be full, students will be accommodated to reach the next nearest school again. That…

We will revert to the Deputy on that. In the context of meeting needs relating to the provision of Gaelscoileanna or Gaelcholáistí, we are doing a body of work to promote the Irish language and its importance. Where there is such a need, it will be looked at in the overall context.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Before I address the specific issues raised, it is important to provide an outline of the extent of the school transport scheme. It is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, over 149,000 young people, including 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools. There has been a significant increase in the number of those availing…

I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to update him on school transport. I reiterate that all eligible pupils who have applied on time this year have been facilitated for the 2023-24 school year. In addition, there has been a 40% increase in the number of concessionary tickets issued to the relevant pupils for the current school year in comparison with the number issued for the 2021-22 school year. There are criteria, that is, the student is living 4.8 km from his or her nearest or next nearest school, but there i…

Phases 1 and 2 have been completed. It is expected that phase 3, which is the final phase, will be completed imminently. However, that will involve the sharing of information. It will have to go to the Government to be signed off and there will have to be discussion and negotiation with a variety of Departments, most notably, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, with regard to what will be involved.

I am pleased to advise the Deputy that approval has issued for the provision of additional classroom accommodation at the school referred, to cater for enrolments. The project is being delivered under the Department’s Devolved SEN Reconfiguration and Modular Accommodation programme. This approach supports accelerated delivery of the accommodation and maximises assistance to the school for this brief, the project will be delivered from the Department’s Procurement Frameworks. A Project Management company will be app…

My Department provides funding to all recognised schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs including heating, lighting etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. These grants may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities. As part of the Cost of Living measures introduced in the Budget, €90 million…

The National Parents Council Primary was formally requested to extend its remit and support to post primary parents in written correspondence dated 02 December 2022.

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 147,900 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services are being provided in the current school year for over 4,500 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine. The total cost of the scheme in 202…

In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998 and the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018. It is appreciated that practical difficulties can arise where family circumstances vary and differ, however, the Department's approach to the issue of the rights of separated parents to involvement in their children's education is that the rights of both parents should be respected. A qua…

As the Deputy is aware, the purpose of the Summer Works Scheme is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works which, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The Summer Works Scheme plays an important role in the maintenance and upgrade of the condition of our schools. It provides important opportunities for enhancing the facilities in a school such as upgrading science laboratories and e…

The report on the Review of the Out of School Education Provision was published by my Department in May 2022. The report is available at gov.ie - Out-of-school education provision (www.gov.ie). An Implementation Group is established to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the report. The Implementation Group consists of representatives from relevant Government Departments, agencies and other key stakeholders, including officials from my own Department, Tusla Education Support Service, the National C…

My Department and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications have developed a jointly funded school sector decarbonisation pathfinder programme. It is administered by the Planning and Building Unit in my Department and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in partnership with devolved delivery support from Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board. This pathfinder programme is paving the way for, and informing, a much larger national decarbonisation school sector programme. This pathfinde…

I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has no current record of receiving an application for additional accommodation from the school in question. The purpose of my Department’s Additional School Accommodation (or ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with special education needs is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation. At primary level, this situation generally …

I would like to advise the Deputy that the school in question has received total funding of €218,013.77 for three separate projects under my Departments Emergency Works Scheme, in the period November 2018 to date.

The number of Ukrainian students enrolled in schools is set out by county in the table below, at primary and post-primary level, as of 31 March 2023. I regret that I am not in a position to provide statistics at the level of detail requested by the Deputy at this time. My Department continues to publish figures on the enrolment of Ukrainian children each month. The latest press release of 5 April 2023 is available here: gov.ie - Department of Education confirms 15,282 Ukrainian pupils currently enrolled in Irish sc…

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 147,900 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services are being provided in the current school year for over 4,500 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine. The total cost of the scheme in 202…

The Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill has passed all stages of Seanad Éireann, and passed Second Stage in Dáil Éireann on 8th July 2021. Officials in my Department are continuing to engage with stakeholders including the National Parents Council and the Office of the Ombudsman for Children on matters pertaining to the Bill in advance of the Bill progressing to Committee Stage in Dáil Éireann. I recently launched Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying Implementation Plan 2023-2027 . The implementation plan inc…