Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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80. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated first and full year cost of providing an additional 10,000 school transport places up to a maximum of 100,000 places. [39766/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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104. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children who register for a place on the school transport scheme; and how many places would need to be delivered to cope with capacity. [39929/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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105. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children which availed of the school transport scheme in 2024 and to date in 2025, in primary and secondary school respectively. [39930/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 80, 104 and 105 together.

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 are transported daily to schools throughout the country, with 68,300 travelling to primary schools and 104,700 travelling to post-primary schools.

Of this figure, 144,000 pupils travel on mainstream services, over 22,000 pupils travel on services for children with special educational needs and under 7,000 pupils from Ukraine are also facilitated on school transport services.

As of 9 June 2025, which was the deadline date for payment/entering medical card details, 162,500 children have registered for the mainstream scheme. These numbers include ineligible applicants otherwise known as concessionary. They may be offered tickets where capacity exists. Bus Éireann will continue to make every effort to source such capacity to meet this demand. As in previous years, this situation evolves throughout the summer months, particularly in light of ongoing challenges in sourcing drivers and vehicles for some routes.

In addition, there are over 4,300 new transport applications for children with special educational needs on hand.

At the time of the school transport review, the total costs to place a mainstream pupil on transport was approximately €1,100 per pupil with an annual increase of approx. 2.5% - 5%. A number of assumptions were set out in the review underpinning this figure. Updating this estimate to calculate the cost of an additional 10,000 children and young people will need to take account of a number of factors. Contractor rates may vary from one year to the next as Bus Éireann procures routes. In particular, where spare capacity is used to accommodate mainstream children would mean a lower cost per head. The average cost will also be influenced by the number of children applying whose fees are offset by a medical card.

To project the cost for 10,000 additional children is therefore complex. Officials from the School Transport Section are happy to meet the Deputy to clarify these points further and answer any other questions he may have.