*Minister for Education, Norma Foley. Photograph: Gary Collins
School transport refunds are to be issued on a staged basis over the next six weeks.
Minister for Education, Norma Foley (FF) confirmed that Bus Éireann will from Wednesday (July 30th) commence issuing refunds to families who are due to receive a refund for the unused portion of their ticket for the period of school closures arising from public health measures/Covid-19 restrictions in the 2020/2021 school year.
“School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 114,100 children, including over 14,700 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 €224.7m in 2020,” Minister Foley stated in response to a parliamentary question from Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND).
Deputy McNamara outlined, “This is the correct decision by the Department of Education as thousands of parents will have paid in advance for transport to schools which were shut through no fault of their own or the Minister”.
Each primary school student is due a refund of €31 with the figure rising to €108.50 per post primary school student, the Scariff native explained. “From today, families will receive an email from Bus Éireann if they are eligible for a refund. The refund will be automatically made to the bank card used to make the payment, or by cheque if a card wasn’t used. Bus Éireann says refunds will be issued to all entitled family account holders starting from 30th June until mid-August”.
