School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 114,100 children, including over 14,700 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €224.7m in 2020.
With regard to transport arrangements for the Summer Programme 2020, as the provision of transport was not possible due to Covid-19 restrictions at that time, my Department committed to providing grant funding to support families with the cost of transport arrangements for those children who were eligible for school transport and who were approved to participate in the school based Summer Programme.
School Transport Section has processed payment of these grants to all eligible families for which all required details had been received. To date, payment has been made to over 900 families at a cost of over €400,000 and School Transport Section is continuing to process payments of these grants to families who are eligible as information is received.
