A few weeks ago, I brought to the attention of the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, a problem regarding apprenticeships. In fairness, she rang me last Sunday evening. Over the past few weeks, she has resolved this issue, which had given rise to problems for many apprentices. I thank her for resolving it. It is good that mother who never previously engaged with politicians was able to ring me and say that she was grateful that someone had picked up the phone, talked to her and resolved the matter.

I hope the Tánaiste will listen to what I have to say about another issue. In the eighties, when many people had to leave Ireland because there was no work for them as a result of the recession, old yellow school buses used to go around the country picking up people. They picked up students and brought them to national schools and secondary schools. Those buses were owned by the State. Ireland had, on average, a population of 3.5 million during the eighties. At that time, we were transporting between 135,000 and 140,000 children to school. There is a saying down the country about a pot that is used to describe situations where people do not have a lot of money.

What was the saying?

Basically, there was no Exchequer money at that time but we were still able to keep the bus service going. Unfortunately, there have been reviews, public consultations and various documents since then. I have spoken to Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, about this matter - I want to make it very clear that I am not directing any blame at him - but, despite everything, it is the same old story every year. People apply in February for bus tickets for kids who might have been attending a school for two years already - and this is on a discretionary basis - and are informed that will be no tickets for them for their third year in that school. There are 15 or 16 schools in my area. In January or February, parents in Williamstown, County Galway, compiled a list of all the children in the area who need access to a school bus. I handed that list to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and he sent it on to the relevant Department. You can go from Boyle to Taghmaconnell in Roscommon, right through Fuerty, Athleague and other areas all the way into Galway and you will encounter the same problem.

We can give out about what is happening, but we need to solve it. Will somebody please contact the civil servants in the section of the Department of education that deals with Bus Éireann about this matter? The same thing happens every year. We have gone from a stage where we had State-owned buses to one where there are a lot of public buses now. I accept that there are more children involved, namely 175,000 or 180,000, but the Tánaiste should look at the figures I have provided. The population in the eighties was 3.5 million; it has increased by two thirds to 5.5 million. However, the number of children who need to access school transport has only increased by 30,000.

The end of August is not that far away. Parents have to keep working. Their kids will not have bus tickets.

Thank you, Deputy.

Over the summer, will the Tánaiste crack the whip in order to get someone to try to resolve this matter once and for all, please?

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for his kind words in respect of Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, particularly in the context of her working on a Sunday evening and getting back to people. It is good to hear that there has been progress on that apprenticeship issue.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Let us be honest, the issue of school bus tickets and places is a perennial one. There have been lots of efforts by successive Governments, Oireachtais and Ministers to try to make progress on this. Some progress has been made, but, clearly, it is a system that is still in need of further reform and improvement and in the context of which a degree of common sense is sometimes needed.

There number of children who have been supported by means of the school transport scheme, as Deputy Fitzmaurice knows and has alluded to, has grown significantly in recent years. Since 2018, the number increased from 120,000 in 2018 to more than 181,000 now. Included in that figure are 24,000 pupils with special educational needs. I am very happy that is the case, but sometimes there is an additional complexity around staffing, the size of the buses, etc, in that regard. From a funding point of view, the scale of the scheme has more than doubled. There was a budget of about €200 million in 2018. We are now spending €537 million on it. There are 181,000 people transported to school daily, more than 8,600 vehicles are used and there are around 11,100 routes involved. I make that point to show that the scale of the operation is significant. There are more than 10,000 routes and thousands of buses involved and the number of students using the services is not a million miles away from 200,000.

The current terms of the scheme are going to continue to apply for the 2026-27 school year. Under those terms, primary school children are eligible for the service if they live 3.2 km or more from their nearest national school and post-primary students are eligible if they live 4.8 km from their nearest school. The Department's priority is to provide transport for all those students who are eligible for the scheme. Children who are not eligible under those criteria but who have completed the application process on time sometimes get seats as they become available. That happens after eligible children have been assessed. That is my understanding of how this quite complicated system works.

There is a broader need here. We have published the way forward in terms of a broader reform of the system. I take the point in that regard, but the priority for this school year has to be to get tickets out as quickly as possible. Bus Éireann has begun to issue tickets for the school transport service for the upcoming school year. That process will continue throughout the summer as routes are finalised. Where a family has a specific query about their child's eligibility status, they should contact the school transport section. I will speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, on foot of the Deputy raising this matter today, and ask that he continues to engage with the Deputy and, I am sure, other Members right across the House.

I thank the Tánaiste for that. The number was 120,000 in 2018. Think back, however, and you will see that it was 135,000 or 140,000 in the eighties. That was the base figure at a time when Ireland was awash with money.

To be blunt, parents who are engaging on this matter would say that they would be as well trying to talk to someone in the White House as they would be trying to talk to someone in Bus Éireann or in the depots. There is a problem. Today, the Dáil will rise. Children will be returning to school on 26, 27 or 28 August. As the Tánaiste knows, many parents are working. We keep talking about public transport. As I always say, if you are involved in hurling or football and you get children in when they are young, they should become pretty good at it. The position is the same when it comes to public transport. If you can supply public transport, people will get used to it and will tend to use it. In the coming weeks, will the Government try to resolve these issues in order to alleviate parents' nightmares and uncertainty? One thing should be borne in mind.

The Deputy should conclude.

An awful lot of the children I am talking about have had concessionary tickets for the past two years. When the contracts are being drawn up, I just do not know why they to not reference 23- , 33- or 50-seaters. If this is done and if the population increases, all involved would under the procurement rules, be able to adapt.

I knew the Deputy would have to mention the GAA, especially with Galway and Limerick playing at the weekend. I wish everybody involved the best of luck.

We are very committed to the school transport scheme. If the Deputy wants to see our commitment, he should look to our budget. The fact that we have more than doubled the amount spent on school transport between 2018 and now is a sign of real commitment. That said, I know the Deputy is a very practical and common-sense person in how he approaches these issues in looking for solutions, when you are spending such a large amount of money, there is an onus on you to consider whether the system is working well. I could not put my hand on my heart and fail to suggest that there are improvements that could and that need to be made. The Government is fully committed to making those improvements.

Our first job was to try to stabilise the situation, being frank. Some good changes have been made. I thank Minister of State, Deputy Canney, for his work in respect of the issue relating to drivers over 70 years of age. I hope that we can see if this can be expanded further, but it was an ageist provision.

I take the point the Deputy made about the Dáil going into summer recess but obviously he will not be going away nor will we in the sense that we will all be working on these issues in our constituencies and keeping in close contact with them. Let us try to get through this September and then to build on the report that was published in terms of what the school transport needs to look like into the future, and I am happy to continue to work with Deputy on that.