Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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419. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of providing 2,000 additional bus places for the 2022-2023 school transport scheme. [26166/22]

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 121,400 children, including over 15,500 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 €289m in 2021. 

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. 

The average cost of providing transport for a child to a primary or post-primary school is estimated at €1,000 per annum.   The average cost to provide transport for a child who requires Special Educational Needs transport is estimated at €9,000 per annum.  

The estimated cost of providing 2,000 additional bus places for the 2022-2023 school year would be dependent on the breakdown of the numbers of children that require transport for the primary and post primary schemes and the Special Educational Needs transport scheme.