I would like to offer my condolences to Senator Craughwell and his family on the sad passing of his wife.

I want to speak about the school bus transport scheme, in particular some of the anomalies in how the scheme is administered that appear consistently and repeatedly year after year. I want in particular to addreess a point I raised in the Chamber on a previous occasion. There is anomaly in Wexford town with students who were unable to attain a secondary school place in the town and had to take a school place in a different town, New Ross, but because they were not attending their closest local school they were ineligible to apply for a school bus ticket, be that concessionary or non-concessionary. At a time the Government is providing approximately €650 million for the scheme, students who, through no fault of their or their families, are unable to access secondary school place could at least be given a school bus pass. The budget needs to examine the entire school bus transport model, how it operates and how these type of anomalies can be ironed out for not only these children but other children who will be affected in the future.