School Transport
Seanad Éireann — 2022-10-20
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

I thank Senator Garvey for her important Commencement matter. There is no doubt but that this issue has caused huge distress to families throughout the country. Before I address the specific issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, I would like to provide an outline of the extent of the school transport service. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the last school year, more than 121,400 children including more than 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. The cost of the scheme in 2021 was €289 million. The school transport scheme is an important service for families and children. 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.
In July 2022 the Government announced funding for the waiving of school transport scheme fees for the 2022-23 school year as part of a wider package of cost-of-living measures. School transport ticket registration for the 2022-23 school year closed on 29 July, by which time almost 130,000 applications and registrations were received for mainstream school transport. This figure included 44,299 new applications as well as roll-overs from the previous school year. Already more than 126,000 tickets have issued for the 2022-23 school year. At the start of the last school year, circa 103,600 children were carried on mainstream school transport services, in the region of 22,400 additional places already have been created.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-10-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:12+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-10-20