Mr. Stephen Kent:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and committee members. I am glad to be here today to update the committee on the school transport scheme. I am attending today with Ms Miriam Flynn, chief schools officer.

Bus Éireann, as Ireland’s national bus company, operates the most extensive and varied public transport network in the country, and we do so with an unwavering commitment to safety. For more than 57 years, the company has operated the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth, in accordance with its policies and guidelines on a cost recovery basis. Our dedicated and hard-working school transport team are located nationwide, operating out of 11 local offices, from Stranorlar in Donegal to Tralee in Kerry. They provide the local focus and knowledge of the network required to deliver services throughout Ireland, especially as the scheme continues to grow and diversify. Our school transport call centre handled more than 40,000 calls and an additional 21,600 webchats in 2024. We also work to support the crucial work of elected representatives in their representation of their constituents through the reps@buseireann.ie dedicated contact point, and our proactive and direct engagement with stakeholders at local level.

For context, the school transport scheme, the largest such scheme in Europe, safely delivered 58 million student journeys in 2024, representing approximately 173,000 pupils per day, of whom 22,000 were special educational needs students. This was an increase of 9% on the previous year. Bus Éireann has delivered an increase of more than 43% in pupil numbers in the past five years alone. The scale and breadth of the scheme are unique. For instance, on a daily basis, the scheme now incorporates 8,200 vehicles across 10,600 routes, involving 1,400 transport operators. This summer, we have received more than 10,000 applications from pupils with special educational needs to attend the summer programme. The overall increased demand for further expansion across the scheme mean these figures will be surpassed in the coming years. This means further investment in the fleet and infrastructure, including support for private operators, is crucial and requires urgent consideration.

Above all else, the safety of passengers is Bus Éireann’s greatest priority, especially when it comes to bringing schoolchildren to and from their education every day. Adhering to this priority, and with respect to our obligations, we processed 10,260 vetting applications in 2024 alone. Our immediate focus is to ensure services are in place for the new school year when school transport services recommence on 25 August. We have commenced issuing tickets which will continue for the period of the summer. I can confirm that, as of the end of last week, we had already issued 84,500 tickets for the coming school year, and we continue each week to issue more. We are at more than 90,000 at this point. Our teams are also planning new routes for mainstream and special educational needs services and procuring services to respond to additional demand.

Looking forward, we are focused on working with the Department of Education and Youth as it progresses to deliver on the aims of the Department’s school transport 2030 review published last year, especially the goal of expanding the service by 100,000 students by 2030. The current scale of the scheme and the planned future expansion will result in a requirement for increased compliance and governance that will need to be supported by enhanced technology systems and associated investment in resources.

Bus Éireann’s commitment to delivering its services in a more sustainable manner and supporting the Government’s 2030 decarbonisation goals will also require specific investment. Moreover, achieving this ambitious growth in the context of an already expanded service requires us to innovate and support solutions such as smart ticketing. This vital national service is crucial to the lives of many families and communities all over rural Ireland. It provides an opportunity to improve local communities by decongesting our roads, directly demonstrating the benefit of public transport to a new generation, provides a boost to local economies and facilitates all forms of workforce participation. This is, of course, subject to the availability of resources and continued investment to support the growth of the scheme is always necessary.

I close by acknowledging all of the stakeholders and partners in the delivery of the scheme, including the Department of Education and Youth, the Department of Transport, the National Council for Special Education, the Garda National Vetting Bureau, the National Transport Authority, private contractors, our local schools team and representatives and, last but not least, the students and their families we serve each day. I thank the Cathaoirleach. I hope this statement has been of assistance to the committee.