Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed)

2:30 pm

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That would be very useful. We have heard a great deal about commercial services. This is a major philosophical issue. When CIE was founded in the 1930s, private services were operating all over the place. The system was found to be chaotic and unplanned and it was decided to bring services under one roof, with profitable services subsidising unprofitable ones. The idea was that we would have a national company, Córas Iompair Éireann, which literally means "choruses transport of Ireland". In the areas outside Dublin the commercial services have been hived off and tendered for competition, which means that there is no chance of cross-subsidisation between commercial and non-commercial services. Can Ms Graham assure me that an analysis of every Dublin Bus route will not show that some are more commercial than others, as is the case with bus services in rural areas? If not, why do we have fish for one and fowl for the other?

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