School Transport Contractors' payments.

Almost 1,300 private operators provide services as contractors on behalf of Bus Éireann under the School Transport Scheme.

The current industrial dispute means that staff in local school transport offices who normally process accounts are not available which has caused a delay. 

However, a technical solution is being put in place which will see contractors being paid next week, who would normally have been paid this week. 

The contract agreement with each contractor sets out that payment will be made within 30 days of a correctly completed invoice being received by Bus Éireann.  Payments made next week are well within this range.

School bus services continue to run normally during this dispute, with over 115,000 children availing of the School Transport Scheme, which is operated by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills.

Tuesday, 28th March, 2017