Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Reidy from SIPTU and Mr. O'Leary from the NBRU. I agree with what Mr. Reidy said about the need for a public debate on public transport and we have not had one. Since I was elected to the Dáil in 2011, this is the first meeting where we have had a serious debate around public transport, its role in the economy and its importance. I agree that direct award is the better model. We have seen the performance targets that have been set. I am talking about Dublin Bus in particular, as that is the company with which I am more familiar. Dublin Bus is hitting performance targets of 95% to 98%. If something is working well, why change it? If it is working, do not break it. One would question the need to do that. Deputy Dooley has suddenly left, but it goes back to the 2009 legislation which established the NTA. Under that legislation the NTA proposes to put out for tender 10% of the routes. In theory the bus companies can tender for that, although I do not know how that works in practice. As has been pointed out, there is a body of opinion, which neither Mr. Reidy nor I share, that more than 10% should go out to tender. We must recognise the political reality.

I agree with Mr. Reidy's idea for a public debate and would like to hear his views on how we could continue that. He made a point on the possible effects of putting the routes out to tender and whether the new operators would provide the same level of service to the travelling public. He mentioned wheelchair accessibility and that is a key point. When the Minister was present at a meeting of this committee, I raised the fact that the Aircoach services to Dublin Airport, a subsidiary of First Group, does not provide wheelchair services. The Minister and Department have asked Aircoach a number of times to do that. If Aircoach can get away with it, other operators might do the same. It is all about the fact that a wheelchair space takes up the space of three able passengers, so economics are at play. People who have asked Aircoach if it could take a wheelchair passenger were told to go to Dublin Bus, that it would carry them. We need a level playing field. Clearly there is not a level playing field regarding services to the public in that area. It will be 2015 before the tendering process is completed and 2016 before the new operators come into play, so we have some time to monitor that carefully and watch how it develops. I would be interested in the witnesses' views on how we should all approach that.