Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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335. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if school transport services will be provided in an area (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36810/24]

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.

Under the terms of the School Transport Schemes, children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 kms from and are attending their nearest national school. At post primary level, they are eligible where they reside not less than 4.8 kms from and are attending their nearest post primary school/education centre. Distance is determined by the Department/Bus Éireann and rules have regard to ethos and language.

Bus Éireann has reported in that unfortunately, for a small number of families who were issued a ticket for the 2024/2025 school year, difficulties have arisen in some localities with a small number of 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.

It has been reported that driver shortages are being experienced in many sectors of the economy and throughout the country. While the situation is dynamic with solutions being found, currently this represents approximately 0.5% of vehicles operating mainstream school transport services. Bus Éireann has contacted the affected families directly and will maintain communications with them.

An “Exceptional No Service Interim Grant” payable by the Department, which will be based on the number of days children attend school will be made available to the families. The grant is available to the small number of families who have already received a school transport ticket from Bus Éireann and where difficulties have meant that transport will not be in place for the start of the school year. Bus Éireann have contacted these families directly. Families do not need to make an application for the exceptional payment. Those who have been issued a ticket and do not have a service in place will be contacted by School Transport Section in the Department.

Work is continuing in order to resolve this matter and Bus Éireann are committed to providing transport to these students as quickly as is possible.

Bus Éireann has put in place a dedicated customer care call centre to assist families specifically with School Transport queries during the busy summer period. Families that have queries can contact the call centre on: LoCall 0818 919 910. Operating hours are usually 09.00 – 17.00 Monday to Friday.

Families can also contact Bus Éireann by submitting a query via the following link .