Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to be here to share an update on school transport with Seanad Éireann. As the House will be aware, the school transport scheme is a hugely significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. As a TD for many years and now as Minister of State with responsibility in the area, I have seen at first hand how important the school transport service is to families up and down the country.

The school transport scheme is not just a logistical service involving buses and routes, but an important support that since 1967 has helped children across their primary and post-primary education. It is about ensuring that no child is left behind simply because he or she lives beyond the reach of a public transport line. In many parts of the country, especially in the rural and unserviced areas, the school bus is the only bridge between home and the classroom. The scale of the operation is significant. Every single school day, over 178,000 children climb aboard approximately 8,200 vehicles travelling along 10,600 routes to primary and post-primary schools across the country. Its benefits also extend to parents and guardians who need to get to work on time. Having their children on a bus means that they do not need to worry about how their children would get to and from school. Sometimes overlooked as well is how the school transport system contributes to our wider climate action targets by reducing car dependency. This, in turn, helps to reduce overall transport emissions and supports the wider goals under the Government's climate action programme.

Members will be aware of the growth of the scheme. As with last week's debate in Dáil Éireann, today's discussion will likely focus on issues around the country, which I acknowledge and will discuss. I want to highlight, however, that there has been a massive growth in the provision of school transport over the last six years in particular. Bus Éireann has issued over 178,000 tickets to date to mainstream services for the 2025-26 school year. This is the highest number of places ever allocated and equates to an increase of 48% since 2018, when the number of children supported was 120,000. This was enabled by investment in the scheme more than doubling from €200 million seven years ago to €512 million in 2024. Of those 178,000 pupils, school transport facilitates over 100,000 mainstream pupils who are eligible for transport as well as 49,000 who are not eligible for transport and who are what is known as - Senators will understand the term all too well - concessionary ticket holders.

This growth has been especially marked in the area of special educational needs transport, which now represents almost 60% of the scheme's total budget, while serving just under 14% of the pupils. This reflects the Department’s continued commitment to inclusive access and tailored supports.The investment is extremely welcome as the scheme and associated costs continue to grow. This growth is driven by increased pupil numbers, an expanding scheme for children with additional needs and increasing transport costs. I meet with senior school transport officials in the Department and Bus Éireann on a weekly basis to track the progress and discuss issues arising to ensure solutions are found for families impacted, which they are daily. To demonstrate this fact, there has been great work done to find solutions for a number of services that were in place last year but did not start on 25 August this year. For those routes specifically, since the start of the school year alone, Bus Éireann has covered 90 mainstream vehicles serving 4,214 pupils and 175 SEN vehicles involving 734 pupils. There is still work to do and I appreciate the idea would be that such issues would be avoided in the first instance. I mention this here today to demonstrate the pace of the work done in recent weeks alone to resolve issues and ensure families are not left stranded.

There are many challenges within the scheme. A scheme of this magnitude is not without challenges. These are reflected in the reported difficulties in sourcing contractors or vehicles in a small number of locations. Approximately 1% of all pupils who have tickets for the current school year are affected by such issues. I wholeheartedly acknowledge the stress and worry this causes to the students and their families. It is important to note that school transport services have not been cancelled, and the affected families have been contacted directly in relation to these challenges. Resolving these difficulties is a priority for myself, colleagues in the Department, and Bus Éireann. It is important to note that all parties are focused on ensuring that transport arrangements are put in place as soon as possible.

There can sometimes be accusations that the lack of services or the late withdrawal of services is due to poor planning, that we all know when the school year starts and therefore the services should be sorted out in time. While I understand the frustration, it is important to highlight that planning starts around November prior to the school year starting, so there is a long lead-in time. Sometimes, however, the issues that arise are outside of anybody's control, such as if the contractor informs Bus Éireann that it is withdrawing its services just days before the school term, which happens every year with no clear reason given. Likewise, I have seen this year a couple of instances where major contractors had to withdraw their services well into August on health grounds. These are obviously very unfortunate circumstances to arise, both for the contractors and for the families impacted. It also means that Bus Éireann has only a limited time to secure a new service.

Difficulties have also arisen in some cases due to the lack of driver or contractor availability or where zero bids were received for a service, despite repeated efforts to procure one. I want to assure Seanad Éireann, however, that Bus Éireann and the school transport team are working extensively to ensure that transport arrangements are put in place as soon as possible. While the situation is dynamic, solutions are being found daily. Currently, those without transport represent a very small number of pupils on the school transport services nationally.

Many Members, both privately and in Dáil Éireann last week, have spoken about the over-70s. On the matter of the driver age limit, the current retirement age of 70 remains in place across Bus Éireann services. From what I understand, there are other bus companies that have similar policies in place, with lower age limits, so Bus Éireann is not alone in its approach to this. A review commissioned by the Road Safety Authority was completed in August 2024. The report was compiled by Professor Desmond O'Neill from the National Office for Traffic Medicine. The report highlighted that there were specific sensitivities that policymakers need to be cognisant of when it comes to carrying children on school buses. The same report states that there is evidence which suggests more caution should be exercised when considering the requirements of drivers of school buses. I mention this here as it is often raised with me as a matter that needs to be resolved. As the Minister responsible, while it might be an easier for Bus Éireann for remove the upper age limit, I also need to ensure that the best evidence available is considered, which ensures the safety of any children travelling on a school bus. Notwithstanding this, there is a programme for Government commitment to carry out independent assessment of the feasibility of removing the exclusion of drivers over the age of 70 from the school transport scheme. Importantly, the 2024 review only considered larger vehicles and did not consider other vehicles operating within the school transport scheme.To fully consider all vehicles, Bus Éireann has advised that it has commissioned external consultants to research available evidence to examine the safety risks and implications of extending the maximum driving age of drivers for small public service vehicles contracted to deliver school transport services under the school transport scheme. The vehicles in question can carry up to eight people, excluding the driver, and include taxis and wheelchair accessible taxis. There are approximately 2,700 such small public service vehicles operating under the school transport scheme on each school day in Ireland. Most of these vehicles are used to operate services under the school transport scheme for children and young people with special educational needs. These services often include school transport escorts to assist children and young people in their journey to and from school. The external consultants are researching best practice in Ireland and internationally. Once completed, the final research will be carefully and fully considered by the board of Bus Éireann.

I look forward to the discussion and will try to answer any queries raised by Senators in the course of the debate.