Mr. Brendan Crowley:

In fairness, Bus Éireann continues to contact operators and has openly said to them that it is more than happy to talk as drivers and vehicles become available. The company has been working hard at trying to alleviate the problem but some of the other issues we have spoken about are feeding into that problem. As Senator Dooley said, the possibility of even temporarily raising the retirement age to 71 or 72 would allow many drivers back into the system. Drivers do not have to retire from commercial businesses at that age as long as they go for annual medicals and doctors are happy that they are more than fit to do the job. That might be an opportunity to overcome a difficult problem.