Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
901. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Education her Department's views in relation to the use of a vendor product (details supplied) for school bus applications including details of the system’s implementation, cost and any bugs or customer service issues experienced to date. [43130/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraSchool Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 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 €289m in 2021.
The purpose of my Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school.
As mentioned above, Bus Éireann manage the operation of the School Transport Scheme which includes the management of their internal IT systems.
The vendor product mentioned by the Deputy is not used for the School Transport application process.
Bus Éireann have informed the Department that the product is used as part of their customer relationship management suite, along with their phone system and webchats, and has been in use since 2016 for managing our customer enquiries. They have reported they have not experienced any issues with the system as mentioned by the Deputy.
