Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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411. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills whether consideration has been given to lifting the mandatory retirement age of 70 for school transport providers for children with special education needs, or to a temporary lifting of the age limit of 70 for drivers to ensure continuity of service to children with special education needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33866/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, 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 and Youth. In the current school year over 173,000 children – including 13,400 pupils with special educational needs - are transported daily in approximately 8,200 vehicles across 10,600 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.

The retirement age for school bus drivers has been set by Bus Éireann at 70 years of age, which also applies to all Bus Éireann road passenger services.

The policy and criteria also apply to drivers nominated by private operators who operate services as part of the School Transport Scheme, provided they hold the requisite license and satisfy an annual medical examination until they retire at age 70.

The Road Safety Authority, under the remit of the Department of Transport, committed to reviewing the upper age limit of drivers as it relates to larger vehicles/school buses. This review is now complete and is available on the Oireachtas website here: PAC - RSA report over 70s. (data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/33/committee_of_public_accounts/submissions/2024/2024-09-30_correspondence-laura-byrne-higher-executive-officer-road-safety-authority-r2790-pac33_en.pdf)

Under the new Programme for Government (PFG), Government has committed to "Carry out an independent assessment on the feasibility of removing the exclusion of drivers aged over 70 from the School Transport Scheme".

I am currently engaging with stakeholders to agree the parameters of the independent assessment. I would hope this work commences before the end of the year.

More broadly, we are addressing recruitment challenges across the sector. A national recruitment campaign is underway, supported by targeted social media.

A cross-Departmental Taskforce, led by the Department of Transport and involving my Department, Bus Éireann and ETBI is also working to identify solutions to driver recruitment and retention challenges.