Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

We do have a plan. Every year, more and more children are getting access to school transport. I appreciate not everybody is getting access and there is more work we need to do. I think the figure was 181,000 young people who had access to school transport this year. We have to acknowledge we only have so many buses and drivers, but we also need to make sure we have a system that works effectively.
One of the most important things we will work on in the time ahead is a new ticketing system. We know there are buses where not all of the tickets are being used. There are people who are taking up tickets and then not using the bus. We need to make sure that if that is the case, the seats can then be provided to somebody else who needs the bus more. We can only do that if we have an automatic ticketed system whereby people can monitor who is getting on the bus and who is not. That will be one of the most important things we do in addressing some of the issues and challenges. That work is under way and is happening through the Department.
I appreciate it is a challenging issue. We all deal with it in our constituencies, but importantly, it is extremely stressful for parents. Again, I stress that more money is being spent - significant amounts, hundreds of millions - every year on school transport. More children are accessing it, but we need to make sure we have the buses, the drivers and the appropriate system in place to monitor who is on it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17