Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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187. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an estimated cost of extending free school transport to concessionary pupils who hold a medical card; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9254/17]

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

Currently in the region of 114,000 children, including some 10,000 children with special educational needs, are being transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million km annually.

The Programme for Government committed to a review of the concessionary charges and rules element of the School Transport Scheme. This review was published in December 2016 and made recommendations on both the charges and the rules element of concessionary school transport.

As outlined in the review it is estimated that allowing a waiver of the school transport charge for children who are not eligible for school transport but are availing of transport on a concessionary basis would cost an additional €2 million annually.