Families face extra school transport costs of up to €130 a year

FAMILIES face extra school bus costs of up to €130 a year as a result of increases in charges of about 40% from next March.

The rise will be the first of its kind on school transport services for a decade, said Education Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday.

Junior Minister Sean Haughey, who has responsibility for school transport, said the charges would raise an extra €2.5 million a year but passenger charges would still only cover about 5% of next year’s €175m school transport bill.

From the final term of next year, charges per term will be as follows:

* €46 (up from €33) for junior cycle students.

* €71 (up from €51) for senior cycle students/concessionary second-level students.

* €36 (up from €26) for concessionary primary pupils.

The minister said a maximum charge faced by any family will be €150 a term, up from €107, and the increases were intended to reflect inflation.

The abolition of the Summer Works Scheme introduced in 2004 to have non-essential repairs done during school holidays was criticised last night by the Irish Vocational Education Association.

“Many projects are still in train with a significant amount of work to be done, especially in areas like upgrading practical rooms to facilitate disabled access and ensuring rooms provide services like gas and water to match the changing demands of the curriculum,” said IVEA general secretary Michael Moriarty.

Ms Hanafin sent the message to third-level colleges they must compete for any extra funding for services and facilities in undergraduate programmes. Despite massive increases again for third- and fourth-level research, their core funding will rise just 5% to €1.39 billion or enough to offer the same level of services as this year.

Despite complaints by third-level heads the quality of teaching and learning is at risk, the minister said the Government’s Strategic Innovation Fund is available for any additional programmes which universities or institutes of technology wish to offer.

Other elements of the Department of Education’s €9.3bn budget include an €80m increase on last year for special needs education, rising to more than €900m. This will provide for about 900 more special needs assistants and resource teachers.

The €800m budget for tackling educational disadvantage will provide, among other things, an extra 100 places on Youthreach courses next year, as well as 1,000 additional places on the Back to Education Initiative and adult literacy programmes.