The Minister and I both share a firm belief in the provision of affordable public transport, including bus services. However, we must also acknowledge that private operators have to form a part of the solution. Recent measures, including the 20% fare reduction for public transport and the 50% reduction for those with a student Leap card, are absolutely welcome, but we must include private operators in the process because, outside urban areas, these operators transport 54% of the people who need to be transported. We need to include private operators in order that their passengers also can avail of the reductions.

Another issue arises over St. Patrick's Quay, Cork city, and a change happening there that will affect the private operators. I will send the Minister a memo on that and perhaps he can come back to me.

I look forward to the details on that. The Deputy is right about the first point he made in that private coach operators have a critical role in the provision of public transport. I regard them as part of the public transport system. Prior to Covid they were expanding widely across the country, and very successful new routes were being created. Covid has obviously put a real spanner in the works but a lot of the operations kept going through the Covid period and we kept supporting them to do so.

The lower-fare card to give a 50% reduction to those under 24 will be introduced. It will take slightly longer to introduce it for private operators but it will be made available for them. It has been more difficult with the 20% fare reduction because we do not have the mechanism to monitor, manage and audit fare collection. We do not even set the prices pertaining to the private operators. I have met the coach operator organisations on this and recognise it is an issue. While there are no immediate, easy solutions, we will determine what we can do. We want the private operators to succeed just as much as anyone.