Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.

The purpose of my Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school.

In the 2019/2020 school year over 120,000 children, including over 14,200 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres at a cost of over €219m in 2019.

In the 2019/2020 school year school transport services were provided to primary and post-primary schools for over 76,300 eligible children. Of these, in the region of 28,000 children held valid Medical Cards and were exempt from school transport charges. In addition, there is no charge for children availing of transport on the School Transport Scheme for Children with Special Educational Needs.

The average cost of providing transport for a child to a primary or post-primary school is estimated at €1,000 per annum. In 2019, receipts from school transport charges amounted to some €17m. If school transport fees were to be abolished this would be the additional cost on the scheme.

With regard to increasing funding by 5%, 10%, 20% and 25%, respectively, the cost of the scheme in 2019 was over €219m so it would be an estimated respective increase on this figure.