Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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551. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 252 of 18 September 2013 and with reference to a request to publish the Farrell Grant Sparks, FGS, report of 2009 that was published in redacted form on 16 April 2014, if she will clarify that Bus Éireann does not make a profit from the school transport scheme, considering that the FGS report mentions, on page 150, a discarded option full cost recovery with no profit allocation. [45355/15]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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552. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to my Parliamentary Question No. 252 of 18 September 2013 and with reference to her statement regarding a signed confidentiality agreement, if she will provide the date Farrell Grant Sparks, FGS, commenced work on redactions, the date it completed its work on reaching an agreement with Bus Éireann and on making agreed redactions to the FGS report so that it could be published; the date that Bus Éireann first indicated that it was satisfied with the agreed redactions; the date of the FGS invoice for payment; the date and amount paid to FGS for agreeing the redactions; the date it was first decided to publish the FGS report; the date that her Department’s officials became aware that the freedom of information decision maker in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform decided that it was going to provide access to the FGS report in redacted form; the date Bus Éireann first became aware that the FGS report was going to be published on 16 April 2014; if she will explain the circumstances surroundings its publication; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45356/15]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 551 and 552 together.

Bus Éireann has confirmed to my Department that they do not make a profit on school transport and my Department accepts this confirmation.

As the reply of 18 September 2013 indicated, in completing its work on this report, Farrell Grant Sparks (FGS) entered into a signed confidentiality agreement with Bus Éireann having regard to the fact that certain of the information made available to FGS by Bus Éireann was deemed to be commercially sensitive.

Farrell Grant Sparks commenced work on redactions in September 2010 and following, consultations with Bus Éireann, the redacted report was submitted in February 2011. The FGS invoice for payment was submitted in March 2011. The payment was made in May 2011 in the sum of €5627.71

As the reply of 18 September 2013 also indicated, the publication of the report at that time was encompassed by an appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner. When the decision of the Information Commissioner was given on 26 September 2013, given the existence of the confidentiality agreement and the passage of time, the Department and Bus Éireann undertook a further review of the report to agree publication on the Department's website of the report with minimal redactions focussed only on those elements deemed to be commercially sensitive.

The Department was notified on 27 March 2014 that an FOI had been received by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for the release of the October 2009 and 2011 versions of the FGS report. Bus Éireann was made aware on 15 April that the report with minimal redactions would be published the next day.

None of the recommendations of the report was implemented.