Parents and guardians of primary/post-primary school students are being reminded that the closing date for payment for the School Transport Scheme is tomorrow Friday, July 26.
Bus Éireann, who operates the Scheme on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills (DoES ), is encouraging parents to pay for their bus tickets on time, so that seats can be allocated and organised in a timely way, and therefore also allowing any remaining seats on the buses to be distributed to students who are in need of transport, but who fall outside of the eligibility criteria set down by the Department.
In 2018 over 117,500 school children were carried every day on over 5,000 dedicated school transport vehicles across the country, across 7,000 different routes. In the summer months, Bus Éireann expects to receive in the region of 35,000 calls and a further 15,000 emails, about the Scheme.
In conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills, Bus Éireann has implemented the following actions to support the effective management of queries and the administration of tickets.
Local offices will open at 08.30 during the peak summer period to ensure customer queries are replied to in a timely manner
Web chat is available on the school transport landing page (schooltransport.buseireann.ie ) to facilitate straight forward queries and to accommodate people who cannot call.
Miriam Flynn, Chief Schools Officer with Bus Éireann said Bus Éireann is proud to operate the School Transport Scheme on behalf of Department of Education and Skills, in both a safe and efficient manner.
“We are strongly encouraging families who require School Transport to make their payment on or before the deadline.
“There are only seven weeks remaining until our school buses are back on the road, and that is a relatively short time frame to administer the scheme countrywide. The earlier people pay for their tickets, the quicker we can administer the tickets”.
More information on the School Transport Scheme is available at www.buseireann.ie/schooltransport
