Mr. Feargal Barton:

We have engaged regularly with the Department of Education in recent years, especially since the return after Covid because extra services were required during that period. I do not have an exact figure but if we assume that each of the thousands of companies around Ireland providing school transport is probably losing one or two drivers per year, we can get an idea of how many people we are losing from the system. Bus Éireann would possibly be able to tell the Deputy the exact number because it sends out the letters to remind drivers that as they are 70 years old, they are no longer capable of driving a school bus with school children on it but that they are capable of driving to the Continent. There probably is an exact figure.

We have lobbied the Minister and various Deputies on the school transport system, and I am sure members of the public have done so as well. It is a niche system in which people only work 15 to 20 hours per week. Someone aged 25, 35 or 45 and raising a family cannot survive on those hours. For people in their 50s or 60s who are retired and do not want to work on a full-time basis but want to continue in the employment market, it is a nice area to work in. We find that a lot of people who have left their standard 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday job come into us in their late 60s, and there are not too many other professions in which people can walk in the door and be welcomed at 60 years of age or more. We have lobbied hard to have a mechanism put in place so that drivers can extend their driving for one, two or three years, or whatever that may be. We have asked for reports and safety reports to show us why Bus Éireann believes this would not be suitable. As we heard earlier, 155,000 students are being transported to and from schools so there is a requirement for more drivers. It seems a shame to lose guys who have been working for ten, 20 or 30 years in that profession because of an age limit. We have worked hard on that behind the scenes but, unfortunately, we have not had any success to date.