Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 417: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Science the number of CIE school buses in operation annually in the past five years; the cost of operating this service annually for the past five years; the hours of operation daily of the CIE school buses; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17038/10]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Bus Éireann is responsible for the day to day operation of school transport services throughout the country. This is a complex national operation supporting in the region of 65,000 post primary pupils, 52,000 primary and 8,000 special needs pupils.

The number of Bus Éireann vehicles operating within the School Transport Scheme varies throughout the course of a school year. The following list shows the number of Bus Éireann vehicles that operated daily during the month of October for each year:- 2005 539 2006 530 2007 541 2008 520 2009 508

The cost of providing school transport services, using a mix of almost 4,000 Bus Éireann and private contractor vehicles each school day over the last five years, is:- 2005 € 106 million 2006 € 126 million 2007 € 146 million 2008 € 162 million 2009 € 159 million (est.)

The planning, routing and timetabling of school transport services is an operational matter for Bus Éireann and routes are coordinated to ensure that buses are fully utilised in an efficient and cost effective manner. In this regard, Bus Éireann vehicles operate for a period of about 4/5 hours daily providing transport services to both primary and post primary pupils.