Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

It would take a national organiser to do it on that basis. There is no alternative national organiser that we see. The bulk of what Bus Éireann does is to outsource procurement, which is done to Government procurement standards. There is no question about the procurement by Bus Éireann of the services. I think it is very really helpful that the value for money question was confirmed by the Comptroller and Auditor General. We get updates and sign-offs on reports from Bus Éireann to confirm that this is the case. We are looking at other ways that we can confirm that this is the case. I am not saying that we just take it on its word forever but we have to look at it.

I do not see an alternative national organiser to step in and organise all of those services and to procure and to work it out. We are, however, undertaking the audit of routes and when we look at that, which I referred to in my opening statement, we can then see if that informs any other policy choices. Of course, there are policy choices. At the moment our very strong policy option is to work with Bus Éireann as the route provider providing that it is outsourcing the vast majority of the service, as it does. The private sector is hugely involved in school transport.