Mr. Ray Hernan:

A root and branch review is under way and in terms of a culture, it must continue. Every organisation takes an ongoing root and branch approach to trying to deliver more efficiencies. In the context of our immediate financial crisis, that review will be completed by the end of March. However, we are not waiting until the end of March to start implementing measures to try to stem the losses. We announced measures to our staff at the beginning of last week. We also communicated to the trade unions a number of other measures we need to implement urgently. I appreciate, however, that these require negotiation with staff representatives. The announcement we made last Monday week was a list of 11 measures that were part of previous collective agreements and which, for whatever reason, were implemented only in certain areas and not across the whole Bus Éireann organisation. I have basically authorised that these measures be implemented with immediate effect.

We have implemented many other measures, for example, utilising technology to make our buses more fuel efficient. We have also outlined in greater detail other initiatives that will deliver immediate cost savings.