Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-16
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for his kind words in respect of Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, particularly in the context of her working on a Sunday evening and getting back to people. It is good to hear that there has been progress on that apprenticeship issue.
I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Let us be honest, the issue of school bus tickets and places is a perennial one. There have been lots of efforts by successive Governments, Oireachtais and Ministers to try to make progress on this. Some progress has been made, but, clearly, it is a system that is still in need of further reform and improvement and in the context of which a degree of common sense is sometimes needed.
There number of children who have been supported by means of the school transport scheme, as Deputy Fitzmaurice knows and has alluded to, has grown significantly in recent years. Since 2018, the number increased from 120,000 in 2018 to more than 181,000 now. Included in that figure are 24,000 pupils with special educational needs. I am very happy that is the case, but sometimes there is an additional complexity around staffing, the size of the buses, etc, in that regard. From a funding point of view, the scale of the scheme has more than doubled. There was a budget of about €200 million in 2018. We are now spending €537 million on it. There are 181,000 people transported to school daily, more than 8,600 vehicles are used and there are around 11,100 routes involved. I make that point to show that the scale of the operation is significant. There are more than 10,000 routes and thousands of buses involved and the number of students using the services is not a million miles away from 200,000.
The current terms of the scheme are going to continue to apply for the 2026-27 school year. Under those terms, primary school children are eligible for the service if they live 3.2 km or more from their nearest national school and post-primary students are eligible if they live 4.8 km from their nearest school. The Department's priority is to provide transport for all those students who are eligible for the scheme. Children who are not eligible under those criteria but who have completed the application process on time sometimes get seats as they become available. That happens after eligible children have been assessed. That is my understanding of how this quite complicated system works.
There is a broader need here. We have published the way forward in terms of a broader reform of the system. I take the point in that regard, but the priority for this school year has to be to get tickets out as quickly as possible. Bus Éireann has begun to issue tickets for the school transport service for the upcoming school year. That process will continue throughout the summer as routes are finalised. Where a family has a specific query about their child's eligibility status, they should contact the school transport section. I will speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, on foot of the Deputy raising this matter today, and ask that he continues to engage with the Deputy and, I am sure, other Members right across the House.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-16