Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I understand the Deputy's concern and am aware of the case. I look forward to hearing from Bus Éireann when its report is to hand.

On the operational matter, there is a practical difficulty for drivers in many cases because they may not necessarily be able to identify all the children. Bus operators operate on a panel system of nominated drivers and are interchangeable. Therefore, they may not necessarily know the identity of all pupils. As I said in my reply, the child must have a ticket to travel which must be in his or her possession. The invoice issued by Bus Éireann states that a child can only travel if he or she has a ticket. I have been asked if there is a possibility of providing a list which could be made available to the drivers. The drivers could immediately check the list and that might circumvent these issues.

While that is one way of dealing with the issue, there can be a number of problems with that system in that a large number of late applications and those who are eligible and make late payments cause difficulties. Although they are eligible, they may not have made an application or if they have made an application, they have not paid. Therefore there is a delay at the beginning of a term which causes difficulty. Perhaps we should look at the question of a timeframe for receipt of applications by the Department. A list system is of little use unless the bulk of the children have tickets and the names are available. I am informed that the names for this term will be available in mid-October which is any day now.

Some 10,000 pupils travel on various types of scheduled services for whom it would not be feasible to have listings. However, I take the Deputy's point seriously. We are having discussions with Bus Éireann — we have regular positive contact with it — to consider specific operational matters, especially the operation of tickets, with a view to seeing what can be done in a case such as that outlined by the Deputy.

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