Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to draw attention to the fact that school transport is being discussed here, and I dare not be in the shoes of the Department officials, because it dominates our world for the number of weeks when people receive or do not receive tickets. There have been 4,500 calls and 21,600 webchats, and it is welcome to have that facility. I would say that there is a lot of frustration in those calls and, in my experience, they largely relate to eligibility versus concessionary. We appreciate that people must pay and register on time but I have not seen movement on the significant piece of eligibility criteria. One out of three applicants to the scheme does not meet the eligibility criteria. It was one of the key pieces in a review that started in 2021. It is now 2025 and 18 months after the review was published, yet there has been no movement on that piece. There are 10,500 routes but only 14 pilot schemes, the appointment of a consultant and the establishment of a working group. To me, all that does not seem like a system that is changing and meeting the proposals of its own review. Why is progress so slow? What, if anything, will change for this September and in the short number of years ahead?