Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Senator. The Department of Transport is committed to investing in the school fleet and the overall bus fleet that it has. The vast majority of our buses are Bus Éireann buses, so it is about upgrading them and making them more efficient, including more climate-efficient as well as everything else. The Department of Transport has a commitment to do that. There is also a need for more mechanics to be able to fix the buses. In our constituency, we have had problems with buses breaking down and not turning up. The biggest challenge is getting them fixed. In his previous role, the Minister of State, Deputy Neale Richmond, put people to do that on the list of needed professions that could apply for visas from outside the EU because we were struggling to get people for it.

Regarding the co-ordinator, it would be good to do to take the workload off. We recently met the deputy principal in St. Ultan's. The vast majority of her work is managing the school transport scheme. If there is a way in which we could alleviate the pressures, this would obviously be a budgetary measure or budgetary ask, and we need to make sure that our teachers are given time to teach and do all of the wonderful work that they do in the school. I would be happy to explore it with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and Senator Nelson Murray.