Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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25. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of buses within the school transport fleet that are operated by private operators and public operators, respectively, in each of the years 2019 to 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37967/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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26. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of buses within the school transport fleet by bus capacity, under the categories of large bus (35+ seats), medium bus (19 to 34 seats), minibus (19 to 18 seats) and taxi (up to 8 seats), in tabular form. [37968/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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27. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the median and mean average size of bus within the school transport scheme, by county, in tabular form. [37969/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 25, 26 and 27 together.

The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. Bus Éireann manages the procurement tender process and contract management arrangements to include services provided by contractors under the School Transport Scheme. The school transport fleet is made up of both contractors and Bus Éireann vehicles. Over 95% of services are provided by contractors operating on the School Transport Scheme.

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 School Transport Scheme is demand led based on the location of eligible applicants and is not provided for by county basis, as some students may attend school in neighbouring counties. Therefore, the information sought by the Deputy cannot be provided in the manner requested. The total number of vehicles operating for each of the school years requested by the Deputy by size is included in the attached document.