Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I acknowledge it is a major operational issue every year. As for the media campaign, we as Oireachtas Members were informed all the way along by Bus Éireann as to what was happening and given reminders about the closing date.

Because the closing date has been earlier, the question at this stage is whether the number of applications is up, especially with the concessionary tickets, with which there were problems last year, so that parents will know as early as possible, maybe even in July, whether they will get a ticket on the bus, because it causes disruption. I had a public meeting in Abbeyknockmoy approximately three weeks ago where they were trying to prepare for next year because last year it was a bit of a shambles for them. In fairness, what we want to do is make sure everybody gets accommodated from day one. In terms of applications, has the Minister numbers to compare with last year?

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