Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will begin with the Deputy's last question about the general views regarding PSO funding across Europe. It would be fair to say that virtually all member states understand the role PSO funding can play in meeting transport needs, as there is wide acceptance that the private market will not deliver all the transport needs that societies have. The diversity of views, however, is with regard to how organisations can apply for PSO funding. There would be a body of thinking which contends that private sector companies should have the ability to apply for the use of PSO funding as much as any established state company.

The Deputy began by making the point about a drive to privatisation. All of this is a consequence, and is a very large dimension, of the Single Market. There are Irish companies abroad that are winning business and employing people, both at home and abroad, as a result of how they have made great use of the Single Market. If we are seeking to benefit from the Single Market in other countries, and Irish companies do unbelievably well at that, there is an expectation, not only legal but political, that we should make that same Single Market available to organisations and companies within Ireland, just as Irish companies are able to benefit from it in other European countries. It is the other side of that coin.

The question then becomes how we can manage that, and I realise we have a difference of opinion on this. This is where national governments of member states can play a big role, by making sure it is managed in a way that still reflects the circumstances of the transport system within a country. That is the reason we are not opting for a tendering of the entire bus market in a mandatory fashion. We are making it open to the National Transport Authority to determine what percentage of the bus market should be tendered and it has determined that at this stage it should be only 10%. With regard to the rail market, we are taking a very strong approach which reflects the fact that our rail market is fundamentally different in size and structure from those of other European countries.

While we accept that we have an obligation to comply with the Single Market, and it is in our interest to comply with it because it is one of the reasons our economy is beginning to recover so strongly, alongside that, through the work that I do, we try to ensure that our participation in that Single Market reflects the fact that our transport markets are very different from other transport markets across Europe.