Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

My aim in this regard is to try to combine services and ensure we get value for money. It is a good area and we could get more with less money even than we are talking about now. As Deputy Coveney noted, it is a complicated area and we are talking about network planning. Bus Éireann have experts in this regard and with the school bus service, for example, a considerable number of providers are on contract to CIE; they are not employees of the company. I am not sure how many of those would be available during the course of the day. It should be sufficient to give a reasonably integrated service throughout the country.

The Deputies made points about the HSE and health services and there was a very good system in operation for a while in the hospital in Drogheda. A minibus brought people to a clinic and they were taken in the first couple of hours. After some time for a cup of tea or coffee, they were brought back. The two systems married well. Unfortunately, a change in personnel in the hospital blew that out of the water but we should be capable of providing such programmes to ensure a good service.

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