Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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Ar dtús báire ba mhaith liom fáilte mhór a chur roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach an tráthnóna seo. I thank the Minister of State for taking time out of his busy schedule to be here. This is the first opportunity I have had to have a debate with him in the Seanad. I wish him every success in his role. I have no doubt he will bring his usual vigour and determination to that post and will be a great success in it.

I raise the retirement age of 70 years for Bus Éireann drivers. This needs to be re-examined because it discriminates against people who are capable of providing a valued service. Many people feel it is unfair that drivers are not able to continue to drive a bus after their 70th birthday. These people are perfectly fit and healthy, are medically assessed and are licensed to drive a bus, yet they cannot do so due to Bus Éireann's one-size-fits-all policy, which basically means that people aged 70 years and older are considered unfit to drive a bus.

Another issue is that bus drivers aged over 70 years frequently drive commercial and private buses for much longer in life and there is no issue. Typically, a school bus driver will drive for roughly one and a half hours in the morning and the same again in the evening for five days a week during the academic year. It is ludicrous that someone aged 70 is not allowed to drive children to school but can drive a private bus and take the same children 200 miles down the road and back home again with no issue whatsoever.If the Bus Éireann assessment systems are good enough to determine whether someone can drive a bus at 69 years, surely those same criteria could be used to assess someone who is 70 years or older at a time when we need loads of drivers. No doubt come September this House and the Dáil will be back talking about the shortage of drivers for school buses. It is something that needs to be addressed immediately.

I understand that Bus Éireann has no current plans to address this particular situation but I note it recently reduced the minimum age for bus drivers, which was 23 to 24, to 21 yet it did not see fit to look at the mandatory retirement age of 70 years. In the UK, our nearest neighbour, there is no such age restriction. If you pass the medical and other tests, you are fit to drive, as far as they are concerned. I see no reason why we cannot adopt that same model here in this jurisdiction because clearly, as I said, there is a chronic need for bus drivers. Many who are retired from their life-long occupation now use this particular job as a part-time job as it is only an hour and a half in the morning and an hour and a half in the evening. It is not very taxing or stressful. Many of them enjoy it and they provide a valuable public service.

I look forward to the Minister of State’s response. I sincerely hope the thinking has changed and that we can use whatever influence we have in both Houses to ask Bus Éireann to seriously assess the situation. Someone told me the last time it was raised in this House there were issues of safety once a person is past 70 years of age. We are not talking about someone working 40 or 50 hours a week. We are talking about someone working at most three or four hours a day, five days a week, for the academic year.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Senator for his very kind words. I look forward to working with him over the next four and a half to five years, I hope.

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education. As the Senator is aware, the school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, more than 172,500 children are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million km.

The retirement age for school bus drivers has been set by Bus Éireann at 70 years of age and this also applies to all Bus Éireann road passenger services. The policy and criteria also apply to drivers nominated by private operators who operate services as part of the school transport scheme, provided they hold the requisite license and satisfy an annual medical examination until the retirement age of 70 years.

The Road Safety Authority, under the remit of the Department of Transport, committed to reviewing the upper age limit for drivers as it relates to larger vehicles and school buses. This review is now complete. Under the new programme for Government, we have committed to "Carry out an independent assessment on the feasibility of removing the exclusion of drivers aged over 70 from the School Transport Scheme". The Minister will be engaging with the Minister for Transport and with Bus Éireann to advance this.

In my role as an ordinary TD in previous Dáileanna, I constantly raised this issue and I fully support the Senator on this. I will also support it as a Minister of State in the Government. I can see no reason why a person cannot drive a school bus if he or she only does one or two hours in the morning and another one or two hours. It would solve a huge crisis. We have cases where buses are parked because they cannot get drivers. There are parents screaming to get buses to bring kids to school. I know it is not under my Department but I fully support the Senator on this and I will raise it in any avenue I can. I have already spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, on this and I will meet him about this. He works in the Department of Transport. The Senator makes huge sense in what he is raising. I hope we will be able to find a solution to this.

Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive response. I am heartened by it. I know he raised this himself in the previous term as a Dáil Member. I look forward to progress being made on the issue. As the Minister of State knows well, the heat will come on come September when we are all inundated with inquiries about school transport.Does the Minister of State have any idea as to when we might see progress on this important issue? It is a win-win for the families, the school kids and those people over 70 years of age who are perfectly physically and mentally fit. They are well capable of driving, are fully licensed and want to contribute. As I said, it is not overly taxing. The hours are minimal. Does the Minister of State have any idea when we can, hopefully, expect some good news on this issue?

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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I do not. I spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, about this when I saw the notice of Commencement matters. I will raise it in every avenue I can. We will hopefully see light to it. I think people can drive an ordinary bus until the age of 90 in the private sector, but not for Bus Éireann. Talking to the Senator, he mentioned that there is a completely different system in place in the UK. Maybe we should look at that. I would like to see something happen. I will raise it with the Minister of State and come back to the Senator. We will try to give him a timeline if some decision, hopefully the right one, can be made on this. I will revert to the Minister of State on the issues the Senator has raised.

Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State.