Mr. Stephen Kent:

On the issue of school transport, while it is evident that the scheme has been expanding, the difficulty is that, as was stated, it has always been subject to iteration. In this particular case, eligibility criteria apply. We do not have any discretion in that regard, but we will participate in the process and we will look at the issues raised by the Deputy with regard to particular locations. More than €200 million has been spent by the State to try to deliver school transport services. In fact, coming into Covid, additional moneys were deployed so that we could do that in a socially distanced way for post-primary children. On the issue raised by the Deputy, there are definitely opportunities within the scheme but it is always subject to review. There has been massive growth in the scheme. As I stated, whatever about 2019 when there was demand for 120,000 seats and that was growing towards 125,000, even during Covid there was still demand in September for 114,000 seats. There was a very small fall-off in demand.

The Deputy referred to places such as Corofin. I understand that the school transport scheme is critical for rural villages around Ireland. That is absolutely intrinsic to the scheme. Bus Éireann understands that better than anybody at the moment. The company has been carrying out planning and making the effort currently being made in this area for more than 50 years. However, our planning and effort are subject to the eligibility criteria, which are specified and agreed by the Department and signed off by the Government. Whatever way it is done, it has to be all done as part of a wider review. From our perspective, we stand ready. We will do what we can do to deploy the services. That is all we wish to do at the moment.