Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 September 2023
76. Deputy Michael Creed asked the Minister for Education further to Parliamentary Question No. 308 of 20 September 2023, if she will acknowledge that relative to the 149,000 students transported for the 2022/2023 school year that to date only 132,000 tickets have issued; if she is anticipating an increase in the number of children transported in 2023/2024 over the previous year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41711/23]
View answerThe School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children which includes over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.
In addition, school transport scheme services were provided for over 5,400 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.
The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.
There has been an overall increase in both applications and tickets issued for the 2023/2024 school year in comparison to the 2022/2023 school year.
To date Bus Éireann has issued over 133,000 tickets for mainstream school transport services, which exceeds the total number of mainstream tickets issued by the end of the last school year. Already there are more children travelling on mainstream services than in the 2022/2023 school year.
Tickets issued so far represent an increase of 7% in mainstream tickets issued compared to the same week in 2022.
With regard to pupils availing of the school transport scheme for children with special educational needs, to date, close to 5,000 new applications have been received for transport for the 2023/2024 school year, with over 1,400 of these having been received since July alone. This compares to some 3,670 new applications received at this time last year. To date transport has been provided for over 3,000 new applicants travelling on the above scheme for the 23/24 school year, with transport being provided for over 19,000 pupils in the current school year. As there is no defined closing date for applications under the school transport scheme for children with special educational needs, my Department continues to receive applications all year round.
