Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I very much appreciate that the school bus service is a very important and integral part of rural Ireland. We know that there have been issues around it in recent years and I thank the Minister of State for his engagement in that regard and for bringing the issues to a reasonable conclusion. With regard to the substantive issue, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, I appreciate how demanding and responsible the job is. Over a number of years, we have seen some fatalities with regard to school buses. It is important that my child, the Minister of State's child or anybody else's child gets to his or her destination safe and sound and gets home in the evening in the very same way once the school day is over.

The substantive issue with regard to the point I made is that we have an aging population. There are now people who are capable of working longer and who want to do so. They should be given the opportunity to work longer and should not be discriminated against. I met a couple of bus drivers in my area in Carlow in recent weeks. One individual had been driving buses all his life. Previously, he had been a lorry driver for Cómhlucht Siúicre Éireann. He is very used to driving around the country. He has been discriminated against. He drives for a local bus company and has taken kids on their school tour from a rural part of Carlow to Cork for the day. That is approximately 240 miles to 250 miles. At the same time, he is not allowed to bring the school kids on the school route, which would only be about 15 miles or 20 miles, on a daily basis. I would appreciate it if, as he suggested, the Minister of State went back to the chief medical officer and asked him the criteria and rationale behind what he has suggested. If there was some flexibility in that regard, it would be very useful for everybody.

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