School bus driver age limit
Deputy Stanley urged that school bus drivers over 70 be allowed to keep working until 75 with annual medical and eyesight tests, warning of a driver shortage. The Chair repeatedly intervened while he pressed that the review was complete and the Government should act quickly; the Minister said numbers on the scheme were rising and the 70-year limit is under review.
The issue I am again raising with the Tánaiste is the bar on over-70s being allowed to drive under the school bus scheme. Drivers should be able to continue working within the scheme until they are 75 provided they pass a strict medical test and a strict eyesight test annually. The situation whereby they are arbitrarily forced to retire at 70 is wrong. We already have a shortage of school bus drivers, and more will be forced out. We are losing drivers every week. More will be forced out between now and the end of August as they reach 70 years of age. Bus Éireann representatives were in the Oireachtas yesterday telling us they are trying to recruit drivers and are going to expand the scheme, but they will be able to do it. I do not mean that in any smart way; I am saying that it is not mission impossible. There is a difficulty as the positions are only part-time positions of three or four hours per day. It suits retired people who are on a State pension. It does not suit young people or men or women who have a family. The wages are not there for it because it is only part-time by its nature. Younger workers simply cannot take that on.
Comment on this
Both the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach have agreed with me on the floor of the Dáil that we need to change this. A review has been carried out by the Department of Transport. That is now complete. The Government is now talking about an independent assessment according to a parliamentary question reply I received this week.
Comment on this
The Government has the review done.
Comment on this
That should be enough. We need to fix this and sort it out because we have only 13 weeks left to do it. We have 13 weeks until 25 August.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. More children than ever are accessing the transport scheme, at 173,000. There is a very clear commitment to make sure we expand that further and that as many children as possible can access it. Of course, that means more buses and more drivers. There are clear reasons as to why the 70-year age limit was set, but we have given a clear commitment in the programme for Government to review that to see if any changes can be made, be it in the size of the buses or the number of children. That is happening at the moment, and it is something on which my Department will be working closely with the Department of Transport.