School Transport
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

By way of clarification, the State is subsidising the school transport scheme to the tune of €650 million, which is a rise of just over €200 million from only a few years ago. We have expanded the numbers using the service over the past four or five years from 120,000 to the 181,000 pupils that were carried last year. More than 11,000 routes are covered at both primary and secondary level. That gives a sense of the scale of the operation that is the school transport system right across the country.
The terms and conditions of the scheme go back quite some time. We undertake continuous reviews to try to capture more students who have not been deemed eligible for various reasons. For September 2026, the terms and conditions are as outlined in the Department's notices and on its website. In some instances, recognition is taken of where there is capacity and availability on routes. I do not have the specifics in front of me but I certainly will liaise with the Senator to see what we can do on the issue she raised.
Within the budget we have for this year, there is an ever-expanding demand on the system, with a huge number of people looking for increased services. We ran a number of pilot schemes over the past two or three years and we are evaluating whether they were successful. We must be very mindful of the amount of money we are spending on school transport. That amount continues to grow year on year. We are very committed to the school transport system and a lot of work is going into reviewing the terms and conditions into the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14