Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and compliment Ms Jupp on the work she has done at CIE.

Ms Jupp's background is commerce and finance. Does she foresee a greater restructuring of the entire CIE Group taking place in the near future in order that it might achieve the greatest possible efficiencies and obtain the strongest possible competitive advantage with regard to the delivery of public transport services? There is not a country in the world whose public transport service does not operate without some form of state support or subvention. The concern of the committee is that the subvention to CIE should be used to deliver efficiencies and a competitive and safe service. In the context of its overall structure, is the group fit for that purpose? Ms Jupp stated that there is competition both without and within the group. Mr. Philip Gaffney outlined his aspiration in the context of reducing the journey time between Cork and Dublin to two hours. Inevitably, that is going to have an impact on bus services. Would there be some way of restructuring the entire group and perhaps of cutting parts of it loose, for want of a better phrase?