Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

The total cost of the scheme in 2023 was €382.02m.

There has been an overall increase in both applications and tickets issued for the 2023/2024 school year in comparison to the 2022/2023 school year.

Bus Éireann has advised that in recent weeks they issued tickets for school transport on bus services that had been secured for the 2023/24 school year. Unfortunately, a number of difficulties have arisen in having services in place for the start of the new school year in some localities with a small number of contracted services.

Bus Éireann continues to work intensively to ensure that transport arrangements are put in place as soon as possible, and every effort is being made to ensure transport can be sourced and put in place as soon as possible.

For families who have been issued with a tickets on board one of these services affected, the Department is sanctioning an interim arrangement to assist with the cost of alternative arrangements until your service is in place.

The Exceptional No Service Interim Grant will be made available to families retrospectively. This payment will be paid as an exceptional measure and will be calculated from the date the service was due to commence up to the date that a service in provided for your child(ren).As the payment is based on the number of days a child attends school up until the time a service has commenced, it cannot be paid in advance.

This grant is linked to ticket holders for the number of days that your child attended school from 28th August 2023 until a school transport service commenced.

Grant payments are currently being processed following confirmation from Bus Éireann that a service has commenced.