Mr. Tomás Ó Ruairc:

I will answer a couple of questions and leave it to Mr. Kent and Ms Flynn to talk about the details of the fleet, vehicles and so on.

On the fees, as I said earlier in response to a query, any potential increase in fees one way or another and the whole cost-of-living aspect are matters for the Government to decide upon. Therefore, I cannot comment on them here. However, the Government decision last year and school transport 2030 fixed the fees at the current level for the last school year and this one. That is the position going into the next school year.

The vital role of bus drivers, bus escorts and everybody else in ensuring our 173,000 children and young people go to school safely and happily has been a common theme in the contributions of all members of the committee. As acknowledged, there is a grant of 5%. The issue of administrative supports for school leaders and deputy principals is a wider one, obviously, and there are several pressures in that context that colleagues in the Department will be well aware of. As the schools are the employers of the bus escorts, the question of how it would work if an individual school were to employ a person on behalf of other schools would go back to the complexity of administrative supports. These are not insurmountable challenges, to be clear, but things have to be worked through.

On social welfare, I note the delay in the jobseeker's allowance over the summer period. I am sure it is a subject of ongoing discussion. Maybe we can talk to our colleagues in social welfare again to determine what can be done in this regard.

Mr. Kent will talk about the vehicle context.