Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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494. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school buses that were tested for safety in the past 12 months; and the percentage of buses that passed those tests. [5729/15]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Buses provide services to carry schoolchildren both under the Department of Education and Skills School Transport Scheme and also in a private capacity hired by, for example, parents of schoolchildren or schools.

Every school bus is required to be tested under the Road Safety Authority's (RSA) Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Test (CVRT), which is the primary annual vehicle safety inspection.

All Bus Éireann buses and those owned by operators contracted by Bus Éireann are required to have a valid annual roadworthiness test certificate in order to be used to provide school transport services.

The RSA may be in a position to provide national statistics for these tests.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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495. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way in which Bus Éireann calculates depreciation of school buses in its school bus fleet; if there is a maximum amount that it can depreciate on an annual basis per bus; and the way same is calculated. [5730/15]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Bus Éireann has advised that depreciation is charged as a direct cost to the Department of Education and Skills in relation to Bus Éireann School Transport vehicles.

Depreciation in this context relates to the amortisation of the capital cost of the vehicles and for the purposes of the direct cost is calculated on the replacement costs, which is in line with the approach agreed with the Department for each vehicle type and its useful operating life. This is the maximum charge that can arise in respect of any vehicle.

Once the vehicle is fully depreciated no further charges arise.

At present the school transport fleet consists of a small number of buses purchased by the Department of Education and Skills but the majority of the fleet was purchased by Bus Éireann. The School Transport Scheme is not charged depreciation in respect of any vehicles fully funded by the Department of Education and Skills.

Vehicles are transferred from road passenger services to school transport services on a planned cascade basis when they are available in order to improve the age profile and quality of the school bus fleet. The depreciation charge takes account of the net book value of the vehicles cascaded to school transport and the date the vehicle was cascaded. The depreciation charge also takes account of any school vehicles scrapped and the date of scrapping.

The depreciation charge is independently reviewed by Price Waterhouse Coopers each year as part of the annual audit process.