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16/04/2012
US Bus Companies Mount Legal Challenge Over €150m School Bus Contracts
Two American transport companies are mounting a legal challenge to open up the €150m-a-year Irish school bus contract, the Irish Independent has learned.
Since the late 1960s Bus Eireann has been given the contract automatically by the Department of Education but Trailways and the IC Bus Corporation -- makers of the iconic yellow school buses favoured by US schools -- are part-funding a legal bid aimed at forcing the Government to open up the contract to private companies.
"This contract should be put out to tender under European law," businessman Tim Doyle told the Irish Independent.
Doyle, Galway solicitor Brian Lynch, and the two US firms are part of a consortium called Student Transport Scheme Ltd (STS), which says that under EU law the contract should be put out to tender. They argue this would result in lower costs to the State and a more efficient system.
Doyle added: "There's tens of millions of euro being wasted. Bus Eireann frequently quotes a value-for-money report, saying they're the only organisation in the country which can do this."
STS has promised to build a bus manufacturing facility if it wins the legal challenge and is awarded the school bus contract. It is understood it would require a 10-year contract to justify the costs of investing.
Since the late 1960s Bus Eireann has been given the contract automatically by the Department of Education but Trailways and the IC Bus Corporation -- makers of the iconic yellow school buses favoured by US schools -- are part-funding a legal bid aimed at forcing the Government to open up the contract to private companies.
"This contract should be put out to tender under European law," businessman Tim Doyle told the Irish Independent.
Doyle, Galway solicitor Brian Lynch, and the two US firms are part of a consortium called Student Transport Scheme Ltd (STS), which says that under EU law the contract should be put out to tender. They argue this would result in lower costs to the State and a more efficient system.
Doyle added: "There's tens of millions of euro being wasted. Bus Eireann frequently quotes a value-for-money report, saying they're the only organisation in the country which can do this."
STS has promised to build a bus manufacturing facility if it wins the legal challenge and is awarded the school bus contract. It is understood it would require a 10-year contract to justify the costs of investing.
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