'School's out' in Dublin
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• Dublin-based Private Association of Motor Bus Operators has told its members not to sign contracts for school bus services with Bus Eireann, which administers the Irish Republic's school bus service budget on behalf of the Education Department.
PAMBO director general Richard O'Byrne says its members' costs have gone up 23% in the past five years, but they would accept a 6% increase in payments.
The state-owned Bus Eireann administers the school transport budget, cut this year by 16% from last year's gIrish 40 million, and carries about 60% of the passengers on its own vehicles. Richard O'Byrne says he had told the govenment that PAMBO could administer the budget more efficiently, and could run the services within the budget. "We believe some of the budget is going to crosssubsidize provincial services, and administration costs are high," he says.
Bus Eireann says that contracts are being signed with operators and "we are fully confident that school bus services will start to run as usual on 4 September."