John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation. On membership, it was stated that there are 1,900 private bus operators. How many of them are represented by the Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland? Why are all private operators not members of the organisation?

Mr. Mullins appeared to be suggesting this problem could be sorted out in one fell swoop through the opening up of public tendering. In this regard he mentioned savings of €23 million, better services, local jobs and no safety concerns. What is the downside? What in his view would Bus Éireann see as the downside to this? Mr. Mullins stated there would be no cherry-picking of routes. Can he guarantee that if the market were opened up there would be services in outer rural areas such as Belmullet, Connemara and so on?

An issue has arisen in recent weeks with Bus Éireann in terms of its reducing the number of stops on its Expressway routes. The reason given by it for this is competition with private operators who are taking direct routes. For example, they are not stopping in, say, Carracastle in County Mayo. How would Mr. Mullins operate that service? We are being told by Bus Éireann of issues arising for it in respect of competition with private operators which are operating direct services, with no stops, to, say, Galway to Dublin and so on. Mr. Mullins has stated that his members will provide a better service. Someone must be wrong.