Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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381. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of applications for special needs transport to schools outstanding and not processed as of 31 August 2018. [36846/18]

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

In the 2017/18 school year over 117,000 children, including over 12,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 4,500 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually at a total cost of almost €190 million in 2017.

Over 2,700 applications for school transport for children with special educational needs have been received and processed to date for the 2018/19 school year; Bus Éireann has advised that transport arrangements are being finalised for some 500 of these applicants.