Mr. Aidan Murphy:

With the establishment of the NTA the role of Bus Éireann changed. I know that it is perceived differently in rural Ireland, but with the establishment of the NTA, we are a bus service operator. We provide three sets of service: the school service for the Department of Education and Skills; the public service obligation network for the NTA under contract and our own Expressway commercial fleet. They are three distinct services. We have been mandated to operate as a bus company and relinquish our previous role, which was to consider the total network in rural Ireland. That is a significant change. I understand communities regard us as still having our previous remit, but the reality is different and we must operate within that changed reality. We continue to accept free passes on our Expressway network.