Mr. Stephen Kent:

We have only 22 commercial routes, as I have said. Some might say there is only a slight difference but one difference is that while there were a number of new licences issued there were also amendments to existing licences issued. When amendments were issued on existing licences some of the operators would have increased their service. For example, an operator might have been going to a place 15 times a day and would have increased its service to 30 times a day. That obviously pulls out of it. While this is good for passengers at both ends, and while they have a wider variety of choice, it means there are a lot more buses going up and down corridors where we are trying to fill capacity. Our issue is that while we are continuing to deliver our level of service there is obviously some diminishment of the capacity and the cost recovery on those routes. That is part of the issue. To a certain extent it is not necessarily about the number of licences but Bus Éireann has to recognise that over one quarter of its routes have been directly impacted. When 25% of our commercial routes have been affected it does have an impact.