Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials. I apologise for having to step out at one stage. As a result, I missed one or two of the answers.

As Ms Graham and Mr. Nolan will be aware from our previous meetings, there are two main areas that impact on my constituents in Kildare South. The first is Athy and the region to the north - route 7. The other is the route along the old N7, now the R448, on which Bus Éireann has not operated for a number of years. J. J. Kavanagh used to operate a bus service on that route, but as of January it has withdrawn from it and now stays on the motorway. This is a serious issue for the people of Castledermot, Moone, Timolin and Crookstown. Those are two significant issues that need addressing.

The myth perpetrated by some commentators nationally that urban areas such as Dublin subsidise rural areas can be put to bed here, because we mentioned already how many of the routes in Dublin are public service obligations, PSO, and have their own challenges. That argument, from commentators outside of this room, is not helpful.

My constituents are affected, particularly in the Castledermot area. It has an impact on the young, from the point of view of students who need to get to college by travelling either south to Carlow or Waterford, or north to Dublin. At the other end of the spectrum, older people have health appointments that need to be fulfilled. This is also a significant issue in Athy, on route 7.

There is a sense that decisions the NTA makes do have consequences. When the decision was made to grant Dublin Coach a licence to operate a direct route from Waterford to Dublin and then J. J. Kavanagh sought to change his licence to pull out of the Castledermot element of that route and stay on the motorway, those decisions had a knock-on effect. I was struck by the presentation from Mr. Nolan from Bus Éireann. There are a couple of phases that he repeats. He talks about "cherry-picking" of routes and "increased availability of commercial licences," and says, "We cannot trade recklessly." Decisions that are made about the liberalisation of routes have a consequence that could cost the taxpayer a fortune in increasing PSOs, because the alternative, which is not an option for anybody, is that we end up abandoning these areas. It leaves the taxpayer with a fairly difficult decision and a growing bill for PSO, from the €209 million mentioned earlier. Will the NTA accept that decisions it makes have the knock-on effect of making certain areas not viable? How can we avoid that in the future?

What analysis has the NTA done of options for the Castledermot route - the old N9 - and how long will it be before we have potential solutions? This is even more time-critical than the Athy issue in that, since January last, we have lost seven or eight routes out of the Castledermot area. Are there solutions for Athy on route 7 and how quickly will those be in place? Perhaps the witnesses outlined that earlier, but I did not see it in the presentation. If a PSO is the answer to route 7, will free travel pass holders be able to use them on future PSOs?

I missed the answer to Deputy Moynihan's question about the legislation stopping school transport procurement. I concur with Deputy Denis Naughten. I have worked closely with local rural transport in south Kildare, both in my time as a councillor and more recently, and am aware of the level of frustration experienced by some providers of rural transport in engaging with the HSE on simple matters such as co-ordinating times for a route to link in with the warfarin clinic in Naas. Patients will be aware weeks in advance that they have an appointment at the warfarin clinic, and it is a matter of getting the times co-ordinated so that the bus can run at the same time. Those who want to do their shopping can use that rural transport instead of incurring taxi costs, while significant costs for the taxpayer, through the HSE, for taxi bills can be avoided. That particular matter was addressed to an extent, but not before a lot of heartache. Leaving it to the local areas will not work.

We have been told there are difficulties with the legislation pertaining to school transport, and we need to know what those are. As far as I know, everyone in this House would wish to maximise the use of school buses, which always do half their run empty. Everyone in this House would wish to see maximum engagement, with Departments talking to each other in order to ensure that HSE does not spend millions of euro on needless taxi bills when there is a rural transport network that needs bums on seats to survive and that is quite flexible, in as far as it can be, in adapting. If the NTA will not lead the charge on that, then I do not know who will. The NTA should come back and tell us if the HSE is not giving it the information or if other State bodies are not doing so. We are depending on the NTA to take the lead on this because we need to see improvements on that.

The solution here is not PSOs that will cost hundreds of thousands of euro. We could cover the country in PSOs and have buses travelling half-empty much of the time. We need to think bigger than that. The impact on tourism and other sectors is key. Those are my main points.