This week, we have heard proposals from Government on the expansion of the school transport scheme, which is really welcome. What we have heard this week from the Minister will do nothing to alleviate the problems that rear their heads annually, like clockwork, in August and September, for many areas across the country. Our constituency in Wicklow is hit particularly badly by these issues and a number of students still do not have the bus service that they were promised. We are seven months into that now. The issues that we are facing in Wicklow and other parts of the country relate to driver shortages. That is the primary reason for these problems. We have heard nothing from the Minister about how she is going to fix that. Applications for 2024 will open shortly and parents are really worried about whether they will get a place for their child on the school bus. To alleviate their concerns, I ask the Minister to give a guarantee on behalf of the Government that when any eligible children receive a ticket for a school bus, that bus will turn up for them in September and they can rely on it.

I thank my colleague Deputy Whitmore. It is an issue we are both familiar with in our constituency, as are many Deputies across the country. I welcome, as the Deputy does, the review of the school transport scheme which came to Cabinet yesterday. It is the largest review of the scheme since its establishment in 1967. We both acknowledge there are some good things in it relating to expansion of the current eligibility criteria, current operational challenges, charges, grants and how it can move to a better integrated model of public transport over time. I know we are eager to see early wins on this in advance of the new school year. A phased implementation of the review's recommendations will now commence. Following Government approval for the publication of this, there will now be a shared effort between the Departments of Education and Transport to see how we can move forward with some aspects of this quickly. The issue of driver shortages was one we discussed. I think Bus Éireann needs to reflect on what I believe is an ageist principle with someone over the age of 70 not being allowed to drive a bus.