9th July 2011

Complaint about School Transport contract lodged with Competition Authority by coach companies

Release to: Coach Journals
Date:           JULY 2011
Title:           Complaint about School Transport contract lodged with Competition Authority                     by coach companies

 

The Coach Tourism & Transport Council has lodged an official complaint with the Competition Authority over the contract to administer the School Transport Scheme. The contract is awarded to Bus Eireann by the Department of Education and Skills without a tender process. It is worth around €180m a year, and Bus Eireann receives an administration fee of around €18m each year.

The Coach Tourism & Transport Council (CTTC) says the high cost of administering the School Transport Scheme could be slashed if the contract were put out to tender. That saving could be used to restore many of the services that are due to be cut this September.

Earlier this week, Junior Minister Ciarán Cannon said only Bus Éireann has the capacity to manage the service, but that is disputed by the CTTC. In its official complaint, the CTTC told the Competition Authority: “It is only when a contract is tendered (domestically and internationally) that we can see who has the competence to take it on.”

Gerry Mullins says: “Thousands of children are being forced out of the School Transport Scheme as the Government tries to introduce €17m in cutbacks. Most of this money would be saved if the School Transport contract was managed by an efficient private company rather than a grossly-inefficient State one. It’s a simple choice between saving School Transport services or throwing money into the bottomless pit that is Bus Eireann.”

Figures released by the Department of Education and Skills last week show the administration fee paid to Bus Eireann was €18.7m in 2009, €18.2m in 2010, and is expected to be €16.7m in 2011. The CTTC says these large fees represent a loss of School Transport services, and are used to prop up other activities at Bus Eireann.

The CTTC says it expects the Competition Authority will agree that the awarding of such a large contract without a proper procurement procedure is untenable. It calls on Minister Ciarán Cannon to “do the decent thing” by tendering the contract, and using the money retrieved to save School Transport services.
The Competition Authority says it will contact the CTTC about the complaint within 15 working days.