The EA, which delivers school services in Northern Ireland, recently announced savings measures as it attempts to plug a \u00a3300 million shortfall in its budget.<\/p>\n This has included renegotiating payments to taxi operators who provide services such as transporting some children to school.<\/p>\n The EA recently wrote to operators, asking them to reduce their rates by 10%.<\/p>\n The bill has doubled in recent years, attributable in part to a sharp rise in the number of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) who are taken to school by taxi.<\/p>\n Information provided by the EA revealed that:<\/p>\n \u2013 The highest 10 estimated taxi rates charged to EA range from \u00a383.33 per passenger mile to \u00a337.80 per passenger mile.<\/p>\n \u2013 The EA\u2019s total annual bill for taxi use has more than doubled in five years \u2013 growing from \u00a320 million in 2020\/2021 to more than \u00a340 million in 2024\/2025.<\/p>\n \u2013 Of the plus-\u00a340 million total, more than half was paid to five taxi operators.<\/p>\n The EA said it had \u201cconstructive feedback from a number of operators in response to our requests for savings\u201d.<\/p>\n It added: \u201cA number of savings have been identified to date and work is ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a wide variance in the rates we are charged and our objective is to work constructively with operators to ensure sustainability and value for money.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the highest taxi rates paid by EA are estimates based on the amount billed for journeys shorter than a mile.<\/p>\n Alliance Party MLA and chairman of the Education Committee Nick Mathison said: \u201cThere is no doubt that the rising costs of EA taxi provision is a matter of serious concern.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, these are not new issues, and EA has known costs were not under control for a number of years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is disappointing therefore action to deliver a more cost-effective service has not been undertaken before now.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Mathison accused the EA of now attempting to make \u201cdrastic changes\u201d to services and contracts days before Christmas.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cParents should not be penalised for years of inaction by the EA, especially when for many, getting the transport services they need has been a long struggle already.\u201d<\/p>\n Sinn Fein education committee member Pat Sheehan said he had attended a meeting between taxi operators and the EA last week.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe difficulty is there seems to be unfairness in the system. Some of those taxi operators have been saying to me if you take 10% off, those runs will not be profitable, some of them have said they could be out of business.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the taxi operators pulled the plug in the morning the EA would be in trouble because kids just couldn\u2019t get to school.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody should be getting \u00a383 a mile but there has to be a happy medium.\u201d<\/p>\n An EA statement said: \u201cThe rise in taxi bills is in part a reflection of the increase in the number of pupils with special educational needs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe focus over a number of years has rightly been on securing sufficient placements.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some cases, confirmation of placements has only been achieved at a late stage, with taxi transport arrangements required urgently as a result.<\/p>\n \u201cTo compound this, many of those placements have only been possible some distance from a child\u2019s home \u2013 meaning higher taxi bills.\u201d<\/p>\n The EA said it is \u201ccommitted to working with schools to ensure a greater level of SEN provision in local communities\u201d.<\/p>\n It added: \u201cThis is primarily aimed at improving the education service provided to children \u2013 but it will also have significant positive implications for taxi costs.<\/p>\n \u201cAt present, only 26% of mainstream schools provide specialist SEN provision.<\/p>\n \u201cBy working with schools to increase that level, SEN need can be met earlier and closer to children\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n \u201cAs well as being the right thing to do, this will help curtail growth in taxi expenditure.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has also been a well documented decrease in the number of taxi operators in NI in recent years, which will have also impacted on prices.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is significant variance in the taxi fares we are charged and we are working with operators to ensure sustainability and value for money.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are encouraged by the response from a number of operators, who have tabled savings proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cash-strapped Education Authority (EA) is paying out up to \u00a383 per mile to taxi firms who provide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[107321,835,107322,61,60,107323,2443,34939,107324,80,13311],"class_list":{"0":"post-203705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-alliance-party","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-education-authority","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-nick-mathison","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-pa-exclusive","16":"tag-special-educational-needs","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-ulster"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Newry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FRGQHCV7LND7ZICLSMQPXEPYBM.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Second](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UKJ23JDTYFBYZKRBX7CJN6WATQ.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6ZLLDK6ZDFNPLN6B2BMKF22KUE.jpg\")
Nick Mathison said the figures are a matter of \u2018serious concern\u2019 (Northern Ireland Assembly\/PA) <\/p>\n![\"Pat](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LDVN5IYIARPXZGJMON2G3SNG54.jpg\")
Pat Sheehan said there had to be a \u2018happy medium\u2019 over payments to taxi firms (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n