Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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513. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students in the Roscommon–Galway constituency currently without access to school bus services, in tabular form; the steps being taken to address this shortage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61477/25]

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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514. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department has assessed the adequacy of school transport services in rural areas such as Roscommon and east Galway; the improvements planned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61478/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 513 and 514 together.

The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth.

Under the terms of the scheme, the availability of concessionary transport varies from year to year based on the capacity on the buses running on all the various routes and the number of eligible children accommodated on each route.

The number of mainstream school transport tickets that have issued to pupils in Galway for the current school year is now over 14,300, and over 3,100 tickets have issued in Roscommon for the current school year. These figures include the number of tickets issued to pupils on mainstream services, and pupils on special educational needs services.

A full review of the school transport scheme was published in 2024. The recommended changes to the future operation include expansion of the current eligibility criteria, addressing current operational challenges and moving towards better integration with public transport.

Implementation including pilot projects commenced in the 2024/25 school year. These pilots are continuing for the current school year. Further areas have been selected for the 2025/2026 school year, to pilot the revised scheme eligibility criteria.

The School Transport Scheme is significant in scale and changes as recommended in the review will take time and careful planning to implement.

• As outlined at the time of the publication of the review, given that the proposed changes to the eligibility criteria are likely to further increase demand for the scheme, it is considered prudent to implement the proposed scheme changes on a phased basis.
• Implementation of the recommendations arising from the review will continue to be planned subject to resources being available to meet increased demand.