Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

It is a cost recovery arrangement and does not relate to profit in terms of the understanding of profit that I outlined. That understanding is slightly different for a public sector commercial company than it is for a private sector one. Bus Éireann provides us with details on its expenditure every year and with copies of its school transport accounts, which are published on its website. Bus Éireann gives us its assurance that it is spending all of the money that we provide to it on school transport and that it is not cross-subsidising other elements of its work.

Bus Éireann is the transport management company. It decides on the most efficient and effective routes for collecting children at appropriate stops. It also decides on health and safety issues relating to the question of where children can be collected. All of the above form part of Bus Éireann's transport management expertise. We do not establish the routes - that is Bus Éireann's task. It is for us to establish and the Minister to sign off on the overall policy approach and rules on, for example, the minimum number of children for a service, the minimum distance for a service, how services relate to choices between schools, etc. Bus Éireann implements these policy decisions.