Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister again. There are two particular issues I will mention. The Minister referred to 98% of valid and paid-on-time students having secured their place on their school bus. That means that 2% have not. In percentage terms this may be a small number but it is a substantial number in real terms and the impact is very real for those families. I urge the Minister that she might ensure that this figure reach 100% as quickly as possible.

The second point I will raise is where the Minister has mentioned the current 50% capacity which our school buses are operating on and her ambition to move that to 100%. Can I ask the Minister to ensure that when that happens, that the additional capacity that this will allow for is actually used to ensure that more students receive concessionary bus tickets and that those for whom other anomalies have emerged are catered for, rather than simply dividing in half the number of buses available? We should use the opportunity that this will present to ensure that more students can avail of their local school bus.

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