I thank the Minister of State. That is very helpful. I call Deputy Durkan.

I hesitate to again raise the issue of school transport, particularly given that the Minister has very helpfully and correctly waived charges for eligible students. A couple of problems remain, however, in respect of the logistics for students with concessionary tickets. In some cases, there is room on a bus but students cannot be carried for some reason I am unaware of. In other cases, parents are willing to pay and have no problem doing so. There is a need here to try to accommodate people as best we can, particularly because both parents must now work. The possibility of a parent having to give up work or a student having to withdraw from education is something we should try to avert. Can we do something to assist these students?

I thank the Deputy for raising this subject. It is one of real concern, particularly for those parents and children who were expecting to be able to get concessionary tickets but are unable to do so. I listened intently to the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, speaking on a television programme last night about some parts of the details she spoke about in the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. It is important for us to reflect on the fact that we have seen a 24% increase in the number of entitled students going on buses, which is a good news story. We have also seen a 27% increase in concessionary arrangements. The Minister is seeking to discuss with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath - and I will be supportive of her in doing so - the possibility of ensuring we can help others who may not have been able to afford this service for a variety of different circumstances. The wider issue here is in the context of review and reform. As it happens, I had a meeting with the members of the board of Bus Éireann last week. My sense of where we may, should and will consider going is in the direction of exploring how we can integrate our school bus transport system into our other public transport systems in rural Ireland. I refer to how we can develop the two strands together in complementary ways.

I thank the Minister. His time is up.

This is one of the contributions the Department of Transport will be presenting.