Ms Anne Graham:

On the issuing of licences on the commercial side, the operators will make proposals indicating which towns they wish to serve and what is of commercial interest to them. The NTA makes decisions based on the demand for such services and whether they can serve the towns in question. It is in the area of subsidised services that we can make decisions on introducing services to fill service gaps and ensure they will feed into the key inter-urban services. While it is not possible to provide a service from every town to Dublin, Galway or other key centres, we want to have an integrated service to ensure people will be able to reach their ultimate destination.