Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2017
369. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the actions he will take following the finding of the Comptroller and Auditor General that the accounting arrangements between his Department and Bus Éireann to deliver school transport are inadequate in view of the significant level of costs involved. [46353/17]
View answer370. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the costs to be met from the transport management charge indicates that the funding received by Bus Éireann from his Department was in excess of costs in each of the four years to 2014 resulting in a reported accumulated surplus of €11.2 million at the end of 2015. [46354/17]
View answer371. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason his Department does not carry out verification checks on Bus Éireann’s analysis of the expenses to be met from the school transport management charge. [46355/17]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 369 to 371 inclusive together. School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
During the 2016/17 school year almost 116,000 children, including some 12,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 4,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has carried out an examination of the provision of school transport. The examination focused on whether the Department can demonstrate that it is achieving value for money through its arrangements with Bus Éireann to deliver the service and the oversight exercised by the Department on how the school transport service is delivered.
In general the Department agrees with the recommendations and is taking steps to action these:
- a Service Level Agreement has been put in place between the two organisations
- an independent company have been engaged to provide an overview of the apportionment methodology adopted by Bus Éireann to allocate the indirect and overhead costs (referred to as the Transport Management Charge) to the Department
- the Department is working to carry out an independent route audit to ensure that current routes are effective and efficient in line with eligible children numbers.
The Department continues to work with Bus Éireann to monitor the costs of the scheme and to analyse them on a monthly basis at scheduled meetings. The Department takes account of the robust Bus Éireann internal financial control procedures, together with the independent assurance reporting provided by the external auditors regarding the operation of the school transport scheme.
Finally, the 1975 Summary of Accounting Arrangements, remains the current arrangements in operation and the steps outlined above are intended to strengthen the governance arrangements. The remaining uncommitted reserve of some €6.7 million (at end 2016) may only be used for reinvestment in the school transport scheme as has been the case heretofore.
