School transport figures: 48,000 primary and 63,000 secondary

Dec 16, 2014
Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a breakdown by county of the number of primary and secondary school transport routes operated by Bus Éireann in each of the past five years; the overall numbers of pupils/students catered for in each county; and the receipts collected from school bus tickets in each county over this period.

Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a breakdown of the number of free primary and secondary school transport places currently provided in each county accruing from family medical card cover.

REPLY (Minister of State, Damien English):
Bus Éireann is responsible for the day to day operation of my Department's School Transport Scheme. 

Bus Éireann has advised that the information requested by the Deputy in relation to school transport routes operated by the Company is not readily available on a per county basis. If the Deputy has a particular county in mind the Company could undertake an exercise and furnish details for that county directly to the Deputy in respect of the last three years. The attached table shows the overall numbers of primary and post primary children availing of school transport in each county, for each of the past three school years 2011/2012, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014.

Bus Éireann has confirmed that receipts from parental contributions are not disaggregated by county. Some 90% of parental contributions are paid online through a centralised system. The audited accounts for the school transport scheme show that the total receipts from parental contributions for the past five years are: 

• 2009       €11,628m
  
• 2010       €11,651m
  
• 2011       €11,486m
  
• 2012       €12,570m
  
• 2013       €12,772m

The total number of mainstream primary and post primary children availing of transport in the 2013/2014 school year, the latest year available, was 48,040 and 62,749 respectively. Of these 10,517 primary (35%) and 26,623 (50%) post-primary children, who held valid medical cards (GMS scheme) were exempted from paying the charge. A breakdown of these figures is not maintained on a county basis.