Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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490. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children attending special schools in Cork for whom a school transport place has been sanctioned but a tender has not yet been awarded. [51810/25]

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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491. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of tenders for the provision of school transport to special schools in Cork that were not filled which had been filled last year. [51811/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 490 and 491 together.

The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. As part of this Bus Éireann is obliged to tender all works, goods and services in line with European Directives on public procurement.

Over 148,000 mainstream tickets have issued to date for the 2025/26 school year, which is already almost 3% more than the total tickets issued for the full 2024/25 school year. Over 23,000 pupils are travelling on dedicated school transport services for children with special educational needs, including over 2,500 travelling on such services in Cork.

Bus Éireann has reported that difficulties have arisen in some localities with a small number of contracted services for a small number of families assigned to Special Educational Needs transport services. This has affected some children who had a service in the 2024/25 school year as well as new applicants. In some cases services could not commence as expected due to driver/contractors being unavailable at short notice. In other cases, zero bids were received for a service, despite repeated efforts to procure one.

Transport challenges for SEN services are concentrated in some parts of the country, particularly Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kildare and Meath.

In such circumstances where there is no existing suitable service available to meet a child's needs, and while Bus Éireann are in the process of establishing the service for the child, the Department will offer an Interim Special Transport Grant (STG) to families of eligible children towards the cost of making private transport arrangements. This is based on the number of days attended from the date of application until a suitable service becomes available. The families of the affected children will be contacted directly by the School Transport Section in my Department with details of this grant.