Bus Éireann Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24 ============================================================ Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West I thank Senator Gallagher for raising the issue. I will go through a few brief points first. The school transport scheme is a hugely significant operation run by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. The retirement age for school bus drivers has been set by Bus Éireann at 70 years of age, which also applies to all Bus Éireann road passenger services. The policy and criteria also apply to drivers nominated by private operators who operate services as part of the school transport scheme, provided they hold the licence and satisfy the annual medical examination until they retire at 70 years of age. A commitment was given under the new programme for Government to "Carry out an independent assessment on the feasibility of removing the exclusion of drivers aged over 70 from the School Transport Scheme". Both I and the Department of education have continued to engage with the Department of Transport and Bus Éireann on this matter. The Road Safety Authority, under the remit of the Department of Transport, committed to reviewing the upper age limit of drivers as it relates to larger vehicles and school buses. This review has been completed. To fully consider all vehicles, Bus Éireann has secured its own independent analysis of the issue in the context of small public service vehicles contracted to deliver school transport services under the school transport scheme. As it is a Bus Éireann policy in the first instance, this analysis is being considered by Bus Éireann, and I and the Department of education await the decision. I fully understand the points the Senator has made about the over-70s. It has long been discussed and the Senator has raised it quite a number of times in this House. On my appointment to the Department last year, it was an issue we wanted to get clarity on. Our issue was the August 2024 report that was there. We set up a departmental task force with the Departments of education and Transport, Bus Éireann and Education and Training Boards Ireland. The aim of the task force is to work together to identify the factors. The school transport scheme is a huge operation on behalf of the State every year, and the Senator will know from his county that we have serious challenges getting drivers and buses for particular routes. While we see the issue with the over-70s and the transport issue we are facing, I assure the Senator that the Department of education and I, together with the Department of Transport and Bus Éireann, are working very much together to try to find a solution to this. It is with the board of Bus Éireann and there is ongoing engagement with it. It is a fundamental decision Bus Éireann has to take. The points are always well made about how changing the rules would allow us to have a greater cohort of people able to drive school buses. The points the Senator made about how these people have retired from their main jobs are extremely valuable. I have reflected on all that very carefully and it is important that we bring clarity to this as soon as possible for smaller vehicles that are providing services to the school transport system. I will update the House when a decision is made on it. I might refer to another point or two in my closing statement. --- 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