Ms Maev Nic Lochlainn:

On the school bus services, bus licensing is normally there as a regulatory regime in regard to the commercial bus operators. The exclusion which existed before 2009 was that, in respect of the State bus operators, there was an essential approach that they had a different regulatory oversight regime and that in that case they were excluded from the bus licensing regime of the NTA. The intention was to continue that exemption solely in regard to the bus services that were either provided by Bus Éireann or provided under contract to Bus Éireann. The Department of Education and Skills school transport scheme is administered by Bus Éireann and has a significant number of services provided directly or under contract with Bus Éireann. The way it has been approached is that the oversight regime conducted by our State operator is adequate and the intention was to exclude them from the bus licensing regime.

Given the way the definition was crafted, what happened was that at the same time, inadvertently or unintentionally, other school bus services which were simply provided by commercial bus operators and were not under the Department of Education and Skills or Bus Éireann's oversight were excluded. It is, however, a very small minority of school bus services. In the past year, 130 licensed. In the scheme of all the bus services provided in Ireland that would be less than 5%, which is a small number. They were inadvertently excluded. What will happen with this amendment is that it will allow the NTA to conduct oversight and to check - for argument's sake - that Garda vetting is being conducted. We are not saying that Garda vetting is not being conducted but at the moment, there is not an arm of the State that can make those additional checks.

Disciplinary procedures are brought by both companies in regard to the workplace tests and any failures. I am not in a position to go into the detail of any of the particular cases, but disciplinary code involves up to, and including, dismissal. As I understand it, in certain cases, people have been dismissed in Irish Rail. I do not have the full detail here but, in some cases, they may have had other actions under the disciplinary code which may not have led to dismissal.