Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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675.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will ensure that a school transport issue (details supplied) is resolved urgently.[35570/24]

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 2023/24 school year over 163,800 children, including over 136,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 20,200 pupils with special educational needs, and 7,400 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.

Over 140,000 mainstream tickets have issued for the 2024/2025 school year, which is already 3% more than the total tickets issued for the full 2023/2024 school year.

Bus Éireann has reported that unfortunately, for a small number of families assigned to Special Educational Needs transport services, difficulties have arisen in some localities with contracted services. These services were secured for the 2024/2025 school year and due to reported driver/contractor unavailability at short notice, services could not commence as expected.

Bus Eireann has advised that this pupil's service is not currently operating as there is no driver available.

Until such time as a new service is in place, the family may apply for the Special Transport Grant which is paid to families to assist with the cost of private transport arrangements the family have put in place until services begin. This payment is based on the number of days the child attends school.

Bus Éireann has advised that this service has been re-tendered and a new contractor is planned to commence operating this route from 09/09/2024.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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676.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills whether school transport can be approved for a person granted home tuition in a registered premises.[35597/24]

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 2023/24 school year over 163,800 children, including over 136,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 20,200 pupils with special educational needs, and 7,400 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.

Over 140,000 mainstream tickets have issued for the 2024/2025 school year, which is already 3% more than the total tickets issued for the full 2023/2024 school year.

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.

Providing transport for home tuition is not a feature of any School Transport schemes.