We sound like a broken record in the Dáil today speaking about school transport. Of course the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Government are to be complimented on the scheme itself but it has left many families who had been concessionary ticket holders without transport to school.

I will give the Tánaiste one example of a family that have been loyal Bus Éireann users for the past 15 years, have always paid for their ticket and now they have no transport to school. The mum is a carer and the father is self-employed. Their daily lives have been thrown into disarray without school transport. I ask the Tánaiste to see to it that the Minister has the ability to give the capacity for all of those concessionary ticket holders, who are historically users and are dependent on their school bus to have a way to school.

We will certainly work on this issue over the coming weeks. I know the Minister, Deputy Foley, will testify before committee about it. There are an additional 21,000 tickets this year and plans were made for additional demand. Unfortunately, those 21,000 are not enough. Everyone entitled to the service, as I understand, will get it. However, we have a particular issue with - Deputy Smyth put her finger on it - people who had concessionary tickets in the past, had a reasonable expectation that they would into the future and now do not. That is the crux of the issue that we need to solve. The Minister, Deputy Foley, has the full backing of the Government in trying to do so.

I will speak on the same issue, which has affected all of us all over the country. I realise and accept that a review is taking place and is due to report fairly shortly. I request that the matter be resolved in good time for those left standing, for want of a better word, and for those, some of whom were children in very sensitive cases, who were asked to leave the bus, even though their immediate next-door neighbours were on the same bus and there were vacant seats all around the bus. We must try to ensure that whatever we do, we do not have a situation whereby a child of 12 or 14 years of age is asked to get off a bus and walk home.

It is past time already, given that the new school year is now well under way. I do not know exactly all of the rules and regulations around school transport. I know most Deputies here do. It would not be as big of an issue in my constituency, perhaps, as in the Deputy's. I do not, however, see the logic in telling somebody not to get on a bus if the bus has empty spaces on it. Whatever the rules and regulations are, there is also the rule of common sense. If there is a vacant seat on a bus, why would one not allow someone to use it?