Mr. Stephen Kent:

Within Bus Éireann, we know it is part of the programme for Government and, of course, we will be collaborating and co-operating with any of the research that is going to be required. It has not been specifically called out within the task force but, as the remit has gone, at the moment, the task force typically has been more focused on recruiting. It has a lot of individual members, including people from the NTA, the private operators, the Department of justice and the RSA. We have been focusing in the meetings in the last couple of weeks on how to unlock all of the issues that might lead to the generation of people who can get D licences. That has been the remit.

In terms of our own remit, and given the Deputy is asking the question in relation to the research, this is always under review from our perspective. We looked at it in 2022. There are two aspects that need to be considered from our perspective. One is demand. At the moment, we are trying to deal with the issue of demand through the task force. We see that as a better mechanism at the moment because there are a lot of things that we can unlock. We are growing. We are aware that BusConnects is coming, Connecting Ireland is coming and the school transport scheme is coming. We are working through all of that with the Government, so we are not on our own on that. In fairness, we are getting a lot of support. We also have national campaigns. We are doing that across our own sector, through our own business, and that is moving.

The second part of it is trying to manage the areas of risk and safety. We are continuing to air those issues, particularly with the Departments, so that everybody is fully aware of the issues. In 2022, when our board reviewed this whole issue, given there was some demand for drivers, we had to be aware that there were at least four studies out there explaining to people that there is a risk when you extend the age. We took that on board and we held to our policy. In 2024, we liaised with the Department of Transport again and, through the auspices of the RSA, it a separate piece of research was undertaken by Professor O'Neill. Again, the conclusions indicated that there is a high risk once you extend the age and, to a large extent, that was probably supporting the strategy that we had. We have that study, and there are also other studies.

The Deputy can imagine seeing this through the perspective and lens of bus operators or the boards that make the decision. There was nothing in any of the evidence that was presented to us that would suggest we should move our policy in the short term. In 2025, however, as part of what Professor O'Neill did, he looked in particular at the fact that the research referred to large buses and school bus drivers. Of course, one of the issues that we are currently aware of is that over one third of the school transport scheme is delivered by taxis or vehicles that carry fewer than eight people. What we are doing with the board is trying to see whether there is an opportunity to address demand by looking at that cohort, given there may be risk. However, that is not going to be without its own risk assessment or consideration, so that is a piece of work that we are doing.

There is a moving piece in looking at this. We are all trying to make an informed decision. Ultimately, it is about safety and, from my perspective, particularly with regard to oversight of the scheme and everything we are doing in the operation, we are simply trying to make sure that it is as safe as possible.

I am glad that I am able to say that there have been no incidents to date. Equally, we are trying to make sure that if we make any change in policy, we have good evidence and a lot of supporting things to move so that we do not create endangerment for anybody.

The last piece is what I opened with. If there is a further piece of work that is going to be done with the Department of Transport, or with the Department of Education and Youth, to look at anything that would move this forward, we will participate in that as wholly as we can.