Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Nolan and Mr. Creegan for their presentations. I would like to begin by asking about the issue of school runs. How often are the routes reviewed? I recently met the family of a five year old boy in respect of whom an application was made in advance of his starting school. They were told he would be on the bus route and they made the relevant payment, but when they went to the private provider, they were told he would have to be picked up a kilometre up the road. Obviously, a five year old boy is not going to walk that far. His mother feels that if she has to put him into the car, she might as well drive him to school. When we did a bit of investigating, we found that a private coach operator had been hired by Bus Éireann. Obviously, this operator must take the route it has been told to take. The members of the boy's family did their own investigation and provided a new route, which is safe, is a kilometre shorter and goes past their door. They asked for this to be looked at, but their request was not even addressed. I wonder how often the routes are reviewed. If a solution is found, as it was in this instance, can it be looked at or are these matters set in stone?

Obviously, as Deputy Dooley has said, the witnesses have a very difficult job. People are happy with express routes because they want to get to or from work, but such routes often leave out people in smaller towns who want to get connected. Mr. Nolan gave an example of a case in which a solution was found by looking at other routes and rearranging them. Is that being done for all the routes that have been changed? For example, the 115 route between Dublin and Mullingar used to cover the area between Dunboyne and Summerhill in County Meath, but four locations - Moynalvey, Culmullen, Kilcloon and Baytown - are now excluded and the people in those places feel they are being left out. Do the witnesses review cases like that? Do they look to see what other services might be provided for the people of such areas?

How are the prices for the various routes decided? I would have regularly travelled from Navan to Dublin when I was younger and when I was in college. I know that a one-way ticket from Navan to Dublin now costs more than €11, whereas one could travel a lot further down the country for a lot less.

Is it decided on the basis of proximity or the number of people who use the route? How is it arrived at?

If a new bus stop is being sought on a route, what are the requirements? We have a number of requests in Navan where a service is required. How can people apply for that and how is it decided?