Ms Anne Graham:

I will make some points in response to the Deputy. We do not have complete oversight of the funding for Kerry Flyer. We are just one of its funders. As the Deputy pointed out, Pobal manages funding through a community services programme on behalf of the Department of Social Protection. We provide funding through the rural transport programme, which is related to particular contracts associated with the delivery of rural transport services in Kerry.

If I understand the Deputy correctly, he is referring to the road passenger transport operating licence, RPTOL, which is administered by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and not by us. That gives an operator the ability to operate as a public transport operator. An operator providing one of our contracted services is required to have this licence, however. It is either a RPTOL or a community licence. That is what is required in order to deliver services for us.

In terms of trying to compare Dublin Bus and the services provided by Kerry Flyer, Dublin Bus services are provided under a direct award contract to the authority. That is where there has not been an open public competition but there is a contract in place for delivery of those services. In the case of Kerry Flyer, it tendered for the services it delivers. It is slightly different in terms of the contracts that are in place. That would be the only comparison. They both receive a subsidy in terms of delivery of the services. Dublin Bus receives a subsidy to meet the operating costs relating to the delivery of those services while Kerry Flyer also receives the cost of operating the services it has tendered for.

We have not been in touch with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. If we need to contact the commission, we certainly will. We do not feel that it is necessary at the moment. We have a good working relationship with Pobal and can certainly speak to it in relation to its funding. We only have oversight in relation to our own funding. While I appreciate the Deputy's concerns about the particular companies that have not been successful in school transport provision, we can only consider the rural transport services under the rural transport programme. We encourage those operators to partake in the tender competitions we are commencing this week.