Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

In addition, school transport scheme services were provided for over 5,400 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.

The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.

Already over 133,000 tickets have issued for the 2023/2024 school year which is an increase of 12% when compared with the start of the 2022/2023 school year. The number of tickets issued so far has already exceeded the total number of tickets issued in the 2022/23 school year.

The Department of Education and Bus Éireann have a process to facilitate the provision of School Transport Scheme Services for children arriving to Ireland from Ukraine.

For children residing with a host family or for children of Ukrainian families living in their own private accommodation, an application for school transport can be made via a link to a form on www.gov.ie/ukraine.

Children will be accommodated on existing services where there is capacity. If there is no service or capacity, a grant can be offered to the family as appropriate.

For families and children residing in accommodation centres (or similar), school principals may apply for transport for children attending their school who are residing in such accommodation. School principals should complete the information required on a form which is available on Gov.ie/Ukraine and return it to their local REALT co-ordinator.

Every effort is being made to ensure school transport services are up and running as they are required. However, given the ongoing movement and arrival of families, it may in some cases take some time to arrange services for families.

In relation to the pupil in question, Bus Éireann has advised that they are working on a transport solution for the pupil at present and will contact the family directly in this regard.