Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy mentioned a couple of things. The closing date for payment or for medical card issues is 6 June, which is next Friday. Bus Éireann and the Department officials have assured me they will be working extremely hard for the three weeks after that to get the information together, to correlate it and to understand where the needs are and where the challenges are going to be met. A lot of work is going on and I pay tribute to the officials in the Department and Bus Éireann for their engagement with me over the past number of months since my appointment and I look forward to working with them on it. They have assured me they will be working on this, and we will be having weekly meetings to review it constantly to make sure we have the information for families as soon as possible. It is crucially important we do that.

The Deputy mentioned the over-70s and this issue has come up time out of number in many discussions on school bus systems and the challenges in it. The programme for Government has given a commitment that will be reviewed, and I would like to allow the review take place, so we have the best information possible, and we have data, opinion and a proper review. We will then make a decision on how to move forward. I take that point because it was raised a number of times at the briefing in the audiovisual room. I will continue to work on it. In school transport we have to pay tribute to Bus Éireann and the contractors. The contractors are a vitally integral part of it, as are the school bus drivers because they become part of the extended family. I pay tribute to all bus drivers the length and breadth of the country for the work they do throughout the year and in the more challenging winter months. I assure the Deputy and the House that we will be working extremely hard over the next months to make sure we have the best information for families in as timely a fashion as possible.

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