590. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Education and Youth to review school bus transport for a child with special needs (details supplied). [65292/26]

The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth.

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.

School Transport Section of my Department has been in direct contact with the family in question and an offer of a Special Transport Grant (STG) has recently issued to the family. A response has not been received to date. The family should contact the School Transport Section of my Department to respond to this offer.

If a new service is required, Bus Éireann will, at that time be requested to commence a tendering process to allocate a contractor to operate this service. The procurement of certain services can take time due to the process involved and therefore it may take a number of weeks for a service to commence.

Both the Department and Bus Éireann are very conscious of the challenges faced by parents awaiting transport for children with special educational needs. Families of children who are eligible for these services may therefore receive an interim Special Transport Grant. This is a once off payment, paid retrospectively to families once the School Transport service is in place and is intended to assist with the cost of private transport arrangements the family had put in place until the service starts.