Ms Miriam Flynn:

While we recognise that school transport provides a huge number of passenger journeys in rural Ireland, it operates in a different remit in that Bus Éireann has to implement clearly defined eligibility criteria set by the Department of education when we are planning school transport services. I understand that the area has come up on a number of occasions. We increased the capacity in that area for pupils last year. Capacity was increased in conjunction with the Department of education.

Regarding the queries about the pick-up point, we have gone out and looked at it. We are conscious that when we are dealing with 10,600 routes, they are rural in nature. Many of the pick-up points are not going to have defined infrastructure available at each location. In terms of our view of the route, we would deem it to be as safe as any other pick-up point we use for our school transport services. It is something we will keep under review. If there are any other issues with school transport, I am happy to provide my details to the Deputy to provide any other assistance she needs.