{"id":178131,"date":"2025-11-13T08:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/178131\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T08:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:13:10","slug":"school-bus-operators-on-trial-over-alleged-anti-competition-practices-on-limerick-routes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/178131\/","title":{"rendered":"School bus operators on trial over alleged anti-competition practices on Limerick routes"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIVE school bus operators accused of anti-competition practices are among the many contractors who provide \u201cgreat value for money\u201d by delivering 90% of all school transport routes for 71% of the overall budget, a court has heard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Five Tipperary men are being prosecuted by the Competition Authority for alleged offences relating to the provision of school transport services across five counties –\u00a0Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, south Galway and Waterford.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The accused are Raymond Heney, aged 54, of Camas, Cashel; Andrew Walsh of\u00a0Derrymore, Roscrea; Noel Browne of\u00a0Bansha; Larry Hickey, aged 73, of\u00a0Ardmayle, Cashel and Anthony Flynn, aged 51, of Golden Road, Cashel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ NEXT:\u00a0Judge jails Limerick \u2018accountant\u2019 over \u2018sophisticated\u2019 deception of elderly lady out of life savings<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

All five have pleaded not guilty to offences under the Competition Act 2002. The single charge against each accused alleges that between November 1,\u00a02014\u00a0and December 31, 2016, they engaged in a concerted practice which had as its object or effect the prevention,\u00a0restriction\u00a0or distortion of competition in trade in the provision of school transport services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Central Criminal Court<\/a><\/strong>, Ceara McBride, procurement and materials manager with Bus Eireann, gave evidence\u00a0to Dermot B. Cahill SC, defence counsel for Mr\u00a0Heney, that the provision of school transport is one of the main functions of Bus Eireann, with the company\u00a0procuring\u00a0school services on behalf of the Department of Education.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She confirmed that distance requirements are in operation, with primary school children entitled to transport if they live ‘not less than 3.2km’ from their school, while for secondary school children the distance is 4.8km. For children with special educational needs, distance requirements do not apply.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She agreed with Mr Cahill that persons who are carrying children with special needs in their vehicle get to know the child, which leads to\u00a0a particular relationship developing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms McBride confirmed that\u00a054% of Bus Eireann\u2019s turnover comes from school transport and that most of the men and women who provide this service are not Bus Eireann employees. She agreed with Mr Cahill that 10% of school routes are provided by Bus Eireann, while 90% are provided by people like the five accused men.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Cahill said the Department of Education\u00a0pays Bus Eireann to run the service, with \u20ac149 million paid by the Department and \u20ac14 million through\u00a0fee collection from families, making a total budget of \u20ac163 million.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the total \u20ac163 million, 71% is paid to contractors, which was \u20ac116 million in 2015, said Mr Cahill. He said that as contractors are providing 90% of the services but costing 71% of the budget, this was \u201cgreat value for money\u201d, which Ms McBride agreed with.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The witness went on to confirm that a formal public procurement process for the\u00a0selection\u00a0of tenders was introduced in 2011, with a yearly panel of contractors in place until 2015, when the decision was then made to have five-year panels.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She further confirmed that 114,000 children are transported to school each day across 6,000 routes nationally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trial continues on Thursday before Mr Justice David Keane and a jury of\u00a0seven men and five women.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIVE school bus operators accused of anti-competition practices are among the many contractors who provide \u201cgreat value for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,17208,65264,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,1844,15,16,5,2121,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-178131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-bus-eireann","11":"tag-central-criminal-court","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-limerick","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-tipperary","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115541390558410137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}