Mr. Stephen Kent:

That leads in certain instances to more capacity on the first bus and less on the second. From our experience, it is still better value and cheaper to the State to do that rather than contracting two separate vehicles and different contractors to do it. There is value delivered on that. We continue to try to utilise the capacity. Even though, as the Deputy states, there is concessionary use there, we try to ensure that where we take it in, that there is a contribution coming back into the value of the route. Those students are having to pay in to utilise it and that contributes to the value of it. What we are doing is that we never stop. We have a new management team here with a school transport officer just in place and what we are undertaking is a full structural review within our business as to who is delivering it.

We have delivered a lot of the services directly ourselves with our own Bus Éireann fleet and drivers, supported by a lot of clerical administrative staff. We are now looking at the full needs of the scheme in conjunction with the Department. In particular, as we have recognised that as special education needs have grown, some of the assistance we must do in that regard has to grow. One does not see that cost coming up. If anything, one can see that everything we are charging through what is called the school transport management charge, which is almost a misnomer because it is a recovery of all the indirect costs of providing the service, is coming down year on year since 2008. To the Deputy's point, I can categorically state that we operate this on a cost-recovery basis. There is no profit in this for us at present. That is another matter for us, but that is within the scheme. Where there has been a surplus from one year to the next, it is identified, completely ring-fenced and brought to the Department-----