Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I will ask Dr. Keith Walsh, my assistant secretary, to come in on the issue of the post offices and the licensing. Before he comes in, I will speak briefly to a number of those other issues.

With regard to Portrane to Donabate, the Deputy is right, it is lengthy and also windy and exposed. The Deputy would be surprised; electric bikes are completely changing the range in which people now see bikes as a viable solution. For a lot of people, that kind of distance is now absolutely doable as a daily commute using an electric bike. However, I agree with the Deputy. The average person is not going to be doing that length of journey, except if an electric bike is used, in which case it starts to become a viable option.

On the delivery of buses, which the Deputy mentioned under subhead B3, the timing of delivery of buses is complicated. It often runs from one year into the other. The NTA has a very specific process of assessing buses before they are accepted, and therefore it is seen as delivered. You might get buses in but they are not actually formally approved, assessed, tested and so on. The figures for 2023 include some buses that were contracted in 2022 but only arrived into service, in effect, in the following year. Similarly, by the end of 2023, a number of buses had come into the country but were not officially signed off and accepted. It is-----