Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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797.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline the expenditure pre-committed to the school transport scheme in each of the years 2025 to 2029, in tabular form. [32635/24]

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 2023/2024 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 were 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.

On the 5^thof July 2022 Government announced that in light of the increasing cost of living and as part of a set of initiatives to assist families with “Back to School” costs, students availing of the school transport scheme were not charged fees for the academic year 2022/23. A further decision on the 21^stFebruary 2023 for the school year 2023/2024 reduced charges of €50 per student at primary level and €75 per student at post-primary level would apply, with a cap per family of €125.Ticket charges will remain at these prices for the 2024/2025 school year. This will be at an estimated cost of €49m in the 2024/2025 school year.

All other funding for the School Transport Scheme for the years 2025 to 2029 will be sought, in line with normal practice, as part of the annual Estimates process.