Bus Éireann Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24 ============================================================ Robbie Gallagher (FF), Labour Panel The Minister of State is very welcome to the House this afternoon. Over recent years, I have frequently raised the issue of the retirement age of 70 years old for Bus Éireann drivers. Today, I raise it again, seeking an update. This practice discriminates against people who are capable of providing a valuable service, and a much-needed one at that. Many people, me included, feel it is unfair that drivers are not able to continue to drive a bus after their 70th birthday under Bus Éireann contracts. These people may be perfectly fit, perfectly healthy and be medically assessed and licensed to drive a bus, but they cannot do so because Bus Éireann's one-size-fits-all policy means anybody over 70 years of age is considered unfit to drive a bus. This is a discriminatory and ageist policy that needs to be addressed and re-examined. A cohort of people are fit and well, have been medically assessed and are fully licenced but, unfortunately, they are prohibited from driving under a Bus Éireann school contract because of their age. There is no problem with a 70-year-old driving a school bus in the UK or in other jurisdictions but it seems to be a problem with us here, as far as Bus Éireann is concerned. Many of the people doing this work have retired from their full-time occupation and are happy to drive a school bus. It is not overly taxing, in that it is not a 40-hour or 50-hour week process. We are talking about an hour and a half or so in the morning, and the same in the afternoon. It is not 52 weeks of the year. It follows the academic year, so there is a good bit of time off in that regard. Surely the same medical assessment carried out by Bus Éireann for a 69-year-old who is then subsequently deemed fit to drive could be authorised for a 70-year-old or 71-year-old. The ironic part of all of this, as the Minister of State will be well aware, is that the same 70-year-old or 71-year-old can drive those schoolchildren to a football match 150 miles away and take them home, yet they are not allowed to take them to school in the morning and bring them back home again in the evening. It does not make sense and is not logical. Every September, we have issues here with school transport in that there is a shortage of drivers. Here, we have a cohort of people who are willing, able and fully licensed to do a good job on behalf of the State and to provide a valuable service, but they are prohibited from doing so. I have been asking that common sense be adopted in Bus Éireann's thinking on this matter. It seems to be possible in other jurisdictions but, unfortunately, that has fallen on deaf ears. I understand that during the Minister of State's time, he has been instrumental in reviewing the situation as regards large coaches, and I understand the medical evidence coming back from that - perhaps he might elaborate on this - was to the effect that for large vehicles, there could be a higher risk. However, the same argument applies for Bus Éireann-operated services and private-operated services. Surely for smaller vehicles, there would be less risk. If we allowed those people to do that, they would provide an invaluable service where we are short on drivers. Deputy Moynihan is a common-sense Minister of State with a get-up-and-do attitude, so I hope this common sense will be extended to Bus Éireann in order that 70-year-olds who are fully fit, fully licensed and want to do the job can be allowed to do that valuable service. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-24