Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

First of all, the school transport scheme is a very extensive scheme. About 180,000 students are now carried on the school bus transport system. Costs have been increasing on a yearly basis, as has investment in the programme. There are limits to what we can do. We cannot do everything in one year. However, we continue to work on it.
The Minister of State with responsibility for special education and school transport, Michael Moynihan, has been engaged on this for the last year and a half. We are making improvements to it and the changes to the eligibility criteria will be implemented on a phased basis. The numbers have increased. There are pilot projects. About 11 were approved for the 2025-26 year where the distance criterion was reduced to 2 km for primary and post-primary schools. The need for a pupil to be attending the nearest school has been removed, as the Deputy will be aware, in those 11 pilots, so we will see how they work out.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15