Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
280. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will instruct Bus Éireann to introduce a payment plan for families so that they can pay for the cost of school transport over the course of the school year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12826/14]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that children who are eligible for school transport and who hold valid medical cards (GMS Scheme) are exempt from paying the annual charge.
The scale of the School Transport Scheme, transporting some 114,000 children every school day on some 6,000 school transport routes utilising some 4,000 vehicles every school day makes it the largest public transport operation in the State. Consequently, the feasibility of allowing a more frequent payment option would have to be considered in light of the size of the integrated school transport network.
It makes sense that such an arrangement would significantly increase the administration costs involved given the significant increase in the number of invoices, payments and tickets that would need to be processed over the course of a school year.
In addition, Bus Éireann advise that more frequent ticketing would mean that services would have to be checked more regularly to ensure that several thousand children are travelling with valid tickets, demanding potentially greater supervision and follow-up activity from an administrative perspective, with added cost implications. The current arrangements ensure that school transport services are utilised in an efficient and cost effective manner.
