A pupil with special educational needs is travelling about 330km a day to and from school by taxi. Ireland's Public Accounts Committee heard that on Thursday 5 November 2026, at a sitting on school transport and special education at Leinster House 2000. Bus Éireann chief executive Jean O'Sullivan told the chair, Sinn Féin TD John Brady, that there was one long journey. Chief finance officer Tom Delaney put the distance at around 330km a day.
RTÉ reported the cost as more than €109,000 a year. Taxis accounted for €143 million, 27 per cent of Bus Éireann's school-transport cost. Of about 3,000 taxis in use, 740 are single use. School transport ran €96 million over budget last year.
Bernie McNally, secretary general of the Department of Education and Youth, did not know this pupil's circumstances. Some families choose a long journey to what she called a "very, very specialist place". More specialist schools and special classes should, over time, reduce the number of children travelling long distances.
For the chair, the case is quite concerning: a failure to the pupil, and a financial cost to the taxpayer. Another pupil he knows of travels two hours in each direction. Families he has spoken to want a school in their own area.
John Brady said: "I am looking at the here and now, and the cost to the taxpayer, and obviously the pupil.
"They want to be in the local area. And it's the failure of successive governments, over many years, to put that localised educational requirement there."
After the meeting
In a statement the same day, Brady said the transport cost is €109,000 a year and does not include the pupil's escort. The €143 million was the 2025 spend on taxis for pupils with special educational needs, and 740 taxis are dedicated to a single student. No child should have to travel that far to reach a school place, and the lack of local provision is unacceptable.