I want to raise an issue of concern relating to Bus Éireann. In my county of Roscommon most of the established bus operators lost their runs this summer following a tender process. These operators had a relationship built up with the special needs students they were bringing to school and now the students are being asked to get to know the new bus operators. They might have great difficulty with this. The tender process involves the price, the route and how the bus is cleaned both outside and inside. I am aware of one bus operator who lost his run because he was 1 cent per mile more expensive than the next man. Another bus operator, with whom I am well acquainted, was told he had the best price, but he lost the run because he did not score 100% on how he cleaned his bus outside and inside. Last year he gave the exact same explanation for how he cleaned his bus inside and outside and scored 100%. He copied it from last year and he was downgraded to 66% and lost the run.

There seems to be no transparency as to how bus operators are selected. The very notion that a special relationship is built between the operator and the student is not even a consideration. It seems that how a bus is cleaned inside and outside is more important, which is crazy. I would like the Leader to bring this to the attention of the Minister for Education and Skills in order that we can see what kind of transparency can be brought to these issues.