School transport costs ran €96m over budget last year, Dáil hears

The cost of providing school transport went over budget by €96 million in 2025, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (Pac) has been told.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy said there was a “lack of transparency around funding” for the bus services that catered for about 181,000 pupils, including about 24,000 with special needs.

McCarthy said the original provision for school transport was €383 million, but the ultimate spend was €479 million, some 25 per cent over the budget.

The school system is funded by the Department of Education, which contracts Bus Éireann to provide the service. Bus Éireann, in turn, operates about 6 per cent of the services and contracts out the remainder to private operators.

A total of €641 million has been allocated by the department for school transport in 2026, with the figure for 2027 rising to €687 million, the department said.

McCarthy told the Pac the explanation he received for last year’s overrun was “underfunding in the estimate relative to what was required to meet the demand for school transport”.

McCarthy also told the committee the cost of providing transport for 24,000 pupils with special education needs was “significantly higher than for mainstream services”.

For the 2025/2026 school year, more than 30,500 pupils with complex special needs are enrolled in special schools or special classes within mainstream schools, an increase of about 70 per cent since 2020. McCarthy said the accounts showed a funding provision of €46 million intended for special needs assistance in 2025 had been allocated to “other payroll subheads”.

Fianna Fáil TD Martin Daly told the committee the accounting was a cause of concern and that in 2024 there was an overrun of €131 million in the department’s overall budget. In 2023 the overrun was €99 million and in 2022 it was €69 million, he said. “These are very significant overspends.”

[ There is ‘strong potential’ for integration of school and public transport, committee toldOpens in new window ]

Secretary general at the Department of Education Bernie McNally told the committee there had been exceptional events in recent years including the Covid pandemic and an influx of Ukrainians that added a need for 6,000 more places.

She also noted the cost of transport for pupils with special education needs was higher than that for mainstream students. She said 60 per cent of the budget was going on 13 per cent of the pupils needing transport. Pupils with special education needs each cost the scheme €14,000 while the comparable figure for other children was €480.

McNally also said that while implementation of the recommendations of a school transport review was “well under way”, full implementation, to enable a significant increase in the numbers of children accessing the service, would rely on technology improvements. McNally said other logistical, timing and funding challenges will also have to be resolved.

She said the current operation required a one seat, one ticket safety rule which restricted the number of tickets issued. Under-utilisation of the service, she said, was a feature as many ticket holders do not use it on a full-time basis.

“Reliable and timely utilisation data” is not currently available to support a policy change that would enable those who want seats to avail of the seats not being used.

Jean O’Sullivan, chief executive of Bus Éireann, told the committee the school transport scheme was now the largest of its kind in Europe. In 2025, she said, Bus Éireann directly operated about 6 per cent of the mainstream routes, working with 1,448 contractors and serving 11,241 routes.

She said by combining the department’s policy direction and oversight with Bus Éireann’s operational experience and delivery capability, “we can work together to enhance the numbers accessing the school transport scheme.”