The scheme was set up in the 1960s to ensure access to primary and post-primary education for children who might have difficulty in attending school regularly.

However, given that almost half a century on the domestic and social situations have changed dramatically, with most families now having access to their own transport, Fianna Fail TD Chris Andrews says it is hard to see how the scheme can be fully justified.

Mr Andrews told the Herald: "It is hard for me as someone in the city to see how it is fully justified.

"It's very much a rural scheme and given the traffic in Dublin, if anything it is in Dublin it should be," Mr Andrews said. 

"It's a huge expense and I would have thought that there were other things higher up on the priority list."

The Department of Education currently facilitates the transportation of over 135,000 children.

"The school transport system is a very significant operation involving about 42 million journeys of over 82 million kilometres on 6,000 routes every school year," Junior Minister Sean Haughey said.

"While car usage has increased significantly since the introduction of the school transport scheme, the scheme aims to provide comfortable and safe transport for children travelling to and from school," he added. 

The scheme, which is operated by Bus Eireann, ran up a bill of €122m in 2005, €160m in 2006 and €172m in 2007. Minister Haughey said the increasing costs were the result of new measures to ensure the highest standards.

In recent years the old system of allowing three children to travel in two seats has been phased out, providing all children with an adult seat. The fleet has subsequently increased in size and all buses have now been fitted with seat belts.

The financial contributions paid by families per term depend on how far they live from the school, with many children getting the service free of charge.

Mr Andrews suggested that "if they are looking to make savings within Government, this could be one way, because I believe most people availing of school transport have cars sitting in their driveways anyway." (Source: Herald)