Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State kept us waiting right until the very end to announce the good news, but it is very good news that he announced today, as before. I want to welcome this initiative. As the Minister of State said, it is very positive for students and public travel in this country.

The one issue I would like to bring to his attention is the commercial bus operators, to ensure that they are offering this service to as many students as possible. That is essential to this working. Particularly in rural areas, it is commercial bus operators that operate the scheme, as the Minister of State is probably aware. To get as big a bang for our buck as possible, we need to ensure that those bus operators are carrying out the scheme.

It is very positive news. I thank the Minister of State for confirming that with us today.