Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will come back to that point later. Deputy Munster asked whether my attitude to Bus Éireann was the beginning of privatisation. I have no plans whatsoever in any ideological sense to open what I suspect the Deputy would call the thin end of the wedge to privatisation. That is not the intention whatsoever. If there is to be competition in the bus market or in any of the transport markets, I would welcome that, of course. If the Deputy is asking whether there is any kind of underhand, behind the scenes, talk of privatisation going on, I have had no conversations with anybody about this. I have no ideological commitment to it and have no plans whatsoever to do it. Expressway is a commercial part of Bus Éireann and it operates under a completely unsubsidised regime but if the Deputy is suggesting that there is any plan for privatisation, we do not intend to do that.