Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 25: To ask the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport if he will agree to a meeting with a group (details supplied) recently established to campaign against the cuts to Dublin Bus as a result of network direct; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18994/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I do not have an operational role in Dublin Bus. As such, a meeting would be more appropriate with the management of Dublin Bus rather than with me and I am happy facilitate that for the group.

I generally support Dublin Bus efforts to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness under the Network Direct programme. The Deloitte report on the cost and efficiency of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann identified significant scope for the redesign and more efficient operation of the Dublin Bus network to provide a more attractive service to existing and potential users. The redesign would achieve more frequent, streamlined and reliable services. Following the publication of the report, Dublin Bus undertook an extensive review of its bus network and announced plans for the reorganisation of routes and timetables.

Given the losses recorded by Dublin Bus in 2010, and further reductions in the PSO subvention due over the coming years, it is important that the Deloitte report and the Network Direct programme are fully delivered upon to ensure the viability of the service.

During the review Dublin Bus has consulted key stakeholders, customers and local representatives. The redesigned routings are being introduced on a phased basis to allow for a manageable and orderly process to take place and are expected to be completed by late summer of this year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am extremely disappointment with that answer. It is the same script that the communities that have been affected by these bus cuts have heard since the swingeing cuts in the provision of bus services across the city have been ripping through the bus service.

The Minister should meet the people affected. It is astonishing that we get this stuff, which we got from the previous Government, about the Minister having no operational control. As I understand it, and the Minister may correct me if I am wrong, he must sign off on any route changes. It would be incredible if he did not have to sign off.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Ask a question please.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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If the Minister does not, it seems he should.

Will the Minister meet the users of bus services - pensioners, those with disabilities, young people, and so on - who have been affected by these cuts and they will explain what is going on. If he met them, he would discover that the line being spun by Dublin Bus is disingenuous and akin to the logic of the United States in the Vietnam war that we must destroy our bus services in order to save and improve them. The Minister should take that back to Dublin Bus and do something about a situation where elderly persons in this city are being made prisoners in their homes because their bus services are being withdrawn. One does not improve bus services by taking 200 buses out of the Dublin Bus fleet.

Has the Minister read the Deloitte report? The Deloitte report points out that the Government provides a lower level of subvention for public transport than most of its European counterparts. It does not recommend cutting the number of buses in the bus service, but under the language of so-called reform and streamlining, cuts are what are happening.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I have read the Deloitte report. I acknowledge that the subvention for Dublin Bus is lower than that for other European cities but they are not in the financial position in which this country finds itself where we must cut spending significantly. Certainly, if Deputy Boyd Barrett's policies were pursued, by sending the IMF home and pulling out of the bailout, we would probably have to close down bus services and train services altogether as there would be no money to subvent public transport. We would have to make €18 billion in cuts in one budget rather than only €3.6 billion to €4 billion, as we must do at the end of the year.

I have no role in routes. They are signed off by the NTA, which is the independent regulator for public transport and which works in the same way as the CER or other regulators work.

I meet people all the time about bus services - certainly, public representations and my constituents. The Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, has had several meetings on bus routes. I meet the users all of the time. I am disinclined to meet campaign groups set up by political parties, but there have been other campaign groups. The most important aspect of all of this is that there is a public consultation process. None of these changes was made, and Network Direct was not established without a full public consultation process.

The changes were advertised, there was proper consultation and the matters were considered. It is not true to say that network direct is some sort of stealth cutting mechanism. Network Direct has been applied to my constituency and I am aware of how it has affected my area. In many places it has involved improving services and making services more frequent. In other areas it has involved a reduction in services because the routes had to be straightened out in cases where there were too many routes with too many legs and too many spurs and where services were too irregular.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I put it to the Minister that there is a contradiction in his statement. On the one hand he maintains it is about a review and streamlining services but then he admits that the constraints are all to do with the EU-IMF deal and the package of budget constraints that follow from it. I suggest this is the truth of the matter: it is about the EU-IMF austerity package but it is glossed over with the language of a review.

Is it not the case that if one takes 200 buses out of the Dublin Bus fleet one does not get a better service, one gets a worse service? I call on the Minister to meet these people. Although public representatives played a role in organising and facilitating some of the meetings, I assure the Minister this involves hundreds or thousands of ordinary residents throughout the city who wish to meet the Minister. There need not be any public representatives present at the meetings. These are ordinary citizens who wish to meet the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to explain to him how they are suffering as a result of these cutbacks. I appeal to the Minister to meet their request.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is about efficiency. We are in a situation whereby Dublin Bus must do more with less not simply because of a cut in Government funding, but because of a fall in the number of passengers as well. The numbers are down significantly because of the success of the Luas. This programme is about using the resources more efficiently and delivering services in that way. Essentially, this is what Network Direct is about. I remind the Deputy that if the policies of his party or those of the public representatives who set up the group were pursued, it is probable we would have no bus services at all.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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By not giving €9 billion to the ECB.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Were it not for the money coming from the EU and the IMF we would have to balance the budget this year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We are giving it to them.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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We would have to reduce the deficit to zero in one year. Can the Deputy imagine the effect of that on bus services? The only bus and train services in the country would be those which turn a profit, of which there is virtually none. That would be the effect of the Deputy's policies.