14 pilot schemes currently being evaluated for the biggest overhaul of the school bus programme ever
The Government is evaluating 14 special pilot projects before sanctioning the biggest overhaul of the School Transport Scheme (STS) since 1967.
Co-ordinated school opening times, a more flexible school bus fleet, sustainable transport alternatives and better integration of public transport with the school bus service are being considered.
The pilot projects were conducted nationwide over the 2024/25 school year and were aimed at testing measures to enable the scheme to be expanded to add an extra 100,000 children by 2030.
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The Irish Sun
5 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
New larger Child Benefit payments plan with extra top-up rate on €140 cash for families with three or more kids
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Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Irish Times
Ireland needs to ditch empty promises and economic fairy tales and start confronting reality
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It is not just that things are happening late – like the National Children's Hospital. Or that there are signs of waste and carelessness with public money – step forward the Leinster House bike shed. It is that a lot of vital stuff is simply not happening at all. It is a stretch to believe that the Metro will ever get built. Or the giant project to bring water from Shannon across the State. Or the offshore wind infrastructure that is meant to be at the heart of our energy transition , where the Draghi report on EU competitiveness showed Ireland has one of the most long-drawn out consent mechanisms in Europe. In this context, government targets take on an air of fantasy. Less than six months into the Coalition's term, Minister for Housing James Browne told us this week that the target of building 41,000 homes this year is not going to happen. So why should we believe the target for 2026 or the 300,000 plus homes promised during the Coalition's term? The Departments of Finance and of Public Expenditure will publish a budget strategy over the summer, based, we must assume, on tighter control of day-to-day spending. But key spending targets have ended up being roundly ignored in recent years. Central Bank researchers estimated this week that permanent Government spending has risen by 37 per cent since 2021. Had the annual spending limits of 5 per cent set by the previous administration been adhered to, the increase would have been 16 per cent. That is a €16 billion difference. Official documents and targets seem to exist in some kind of parallel universe where no one really expects them to happen. They are more fairy stories than strategy. And the risk with the plans coming in the weeks ahead is that these are more endless checklists of stuff that is happening already and stuff that might or might not happen at all. Some central themes and directions are urgently needed. 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Irish Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
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