Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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139. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if Bus Éireann made a profit from school transport in 2014 and entered this profit in the annual audited profit and loss account and balance sheet for that year; and if her attention has been drawn to information that this figure was entered in the exact same way as Bus Éireann entered the profit and-or loss from Expressway and its other commercial business lines. [7542/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 113,100 children, including over 14,500 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €224.7m in 2020.

The 1975 Summary of Accounting Arrangements form the basis of the payment to Bus Éireann for the operation of the School Transport Scheme. In this regard, my Department reimburses Bus Éireann for a range of costs incurred in the operation and administration of the scheme. Re-imbursement to Bus Éireann is on a cost recovery basis and the Department does not pay any profit to Bus Éireann relating to the School Transport Scheme.

Actual expenditure is finalised in the Bus Éireann annual statement of account which is independently audited by the Bus Éireann auditors in accordance with the 1975 Summary of Accounting Arrangements.