Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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56. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a progress report on the review of the school bus service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37793/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.

Currently over 113,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in approximately 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.

The review of the concessionary charges and rules element of the School Transport Scheme committed to under the Programme for Government has been completed and is under consideration. As announced in July, a cross party group was established to feed into this review. A meeting with this group has taken place and subsequently submissions on the school transport scheme generally were received by my Department. These are now being examined.