Mr. Gerry Gannon:

It does not have to be motorised. For instance, the bus does not have to be able to traverse the route for the route to be the shortest traversable distance. If it is traversable on foot it is suitable for measuring purposes. That is the current policy.

I have answered the question on escorts, and I believe Mr. Hernan has answered Senator Lawless's question about getting information and updates.

There were local issues concerning services from Johnstownbridge to Edenderry and in Sallins. I will inquire with the local office and report back to the House. I undertake to do that. A local issue was also raised by Deputy Scanlon about Blacklion and a school in the area, Coláiste Muire in Ballymote. Again I would have to refer to the local office. We have more than 6,500 routes. I am acquainted with some of them but obviously not all.

Senator Murnane O'Connor asked questions about how concessionary tickets are issued. Broadly speaking concessionary tickets are issued after the eligibles have been accommodated. In order to try to reduce levels of anxiety this year we have already started to issue eligible and concessionary tickets, beginning yesterday. We will be issuing more than 5,000 tickets which we have ordered from the printers this week. Some concessionary families will know earlier this year than last year that they will have transport. We only started issuing tickets in August last year. That applies where we know that there is not a loading issue, and where people have paid on time, and indeed paid well ahead of the closing date on 28 July.

I will answer the question about how concessionary tickets are issued in a little more depth. The concessionary tickets are issued after the eligible children have been accommodated. If the route is over-subscribed there is a random selection process applied. The order of priority is that existing concessionary children and their siblings who have paid by the closing date of 28 July are given first priority. The second priority is all new applicants who applied and paid on time. The third priority is other families that do not fall into either of those categories, in other words who did not pay on time or apply on time. They would be the third priority if a service is over-subscribed. There has been a huge increase in the number of concessionaries as we all know.

Deputy O'Rourke mentioned people not taking up seats and holding onto a ticket. It is an old chestnut. It was a perennial issue pre-2011 when tickets were free under the school transport scheme for eligible children. It was a very frustrating issue. The answer to it is not simple. Families will purchase a ticket in some cases. The Deputy mentioned free tickets so I presume he means people who have a medical card and are getting the waiver. Some families will use the ticket when it suits. It might suit one day a week. It might suit every morning and not every evening. A parent might be working and might be able to bring a child into school and the child can get the bus home. If one was to consider this, one would have to consider where to draw the line. Must they use the bus every day? What happens if children get sick? How long could they be sick for before we withdraw the ticket? There are a lot of issues around that. I am only making observations because they are policy issues. Bus Éireann has to issue only the number of tickets for seats on the bus. We will not issue more tickets than there are seats on the bus because we cannot risk an overload situation. We could not notionally allow 5% for absenteeism and go 5% over the threshold. We could not do that; we could not take the risk.

The problem with families not getting tickets for all children was another issue that was raised. Some siblings get tickets and others do not. That can be because of the changes to the rules in the scheme. The eligible children who retain their eligibility would likely get their tickets and other children who are concessionary would be subject to the rules governing concessionaries. It is possible that some siblings might get a ticket and another sibling might not. That is the application of policy under the scheme.

Can the capacity of a bus be increased to meet demand was another question the Deputy raised. I think he was talking about Johnstown Bridge to Kilcock. The answer to that is it can be done in line with the criteria of the school transport scheme. If there are more eligible children we have to consider increasing the size of the vehicle serving the school. If the children are concessionary we cannot incur additional State cost to accommodate concessionary children because they are not eligible under the scheme in the first place. It is set out under the rules of the school transport scheme. We have to apply the policy as it is laid down.

The Chairman raised the issue about the dedicated Oireachtas liaison person. Mr. Ray Hernan answered that question.

That is all I have. I hope I have not missed people.