Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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225. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the funding mechanism by which he pays Bus Éireann and private contractors under the school transport scheme; if he provides funding per pupil or per school bus route and how his Department estimated the unit cost per pupil mentioned in Parliamentary Question No. 238 of 3 December 2015; and if this represented the average unit cost or the actual cost per pupil. [14661/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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Payments made to Bus Éireann, which operates the School Transport Scheme on behalf of my Department are in line with the Summary of Accounting Arrangements relating to the Transport Scheme for Primary and Post-Primary School Children dated 1 January 1975.

Interim payments are made to Bus Éireann during the year on an agreed basis and a balancing statement is provided to the Department at the end of each calendar year. Bus Éireann is responsible for paying any private contractors who provide School Transport services and the Department is aware that contractor payments are made in line with the contracts in place with these contractors.

The Statements of Account are published on my Department's website at www.education.ie.

It is a matter for Bus Éireann, which operates the school transport scheme on behalf of my Department, to procure contractors to provide services for school transport purposes.

Bus Éireann is obliged to tender all works, goods and services in line with the European Directives on public procurement, which includes school transport services performed by contractors under the School Transport Scheme.

It is a matter for each tenderer to decide what price they wish to quote for the work concerned taking into consideration their operating costs over the course of the contract period.

The unit cost per pupil referred to represents the average unit costs and was calculated by reference to total expenditure on the relevant element of the Scheme and the number of children travelling for primary, post primary and children with special educational needs.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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226. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to what extent the contribution from parents for students availing of the school transport scheme on a concessionary basis covers the cost of providing the service; and the amount of parental contributions that would cover the cost of providing the scheme for primary, secondary and special needs students. [14662/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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In 2015, parental contributions amounted to over €13 million, representing 7.9% of the total cost of the School Transport Scheme.

The annual charge currently applied for primary school transport for both eligible and concessionary tickets is €100 per child per annum, or a family maximum of €220 for primary children only while at post primary level the current charge is €350, or an overall family maximum of €650.

The charge payable is a contribution towards the overall cost and does not actually reflect the true cost of providing school transport services.

For the 2015/16 school year, over 11,000 children at both primary and post primary level availed of school transport on a concessionary basis.