Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed)

1:30 pm

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

During the course of 2016, Bus Éireann worked on developing a business plan to address the loss-making situation in its commercial Expressway business. Several drafts of Bus Éireann's proposals were presented to my Department and NewERA, my Department's financial advisers, and were discussed. These discussions highlighted some shortcomings that existed in the draft proposals. In September 2016, the board of Bus Éireann commissioned its own independent consultants, Grant Thornton, to review the company's proposals and advise the board.

The consultants' confidential report to the board, which was widely commented on by the media, essentially came up with a similar analysis to the one given over the preceding months by the Department and NewERA. Arising from the board's consideration of that Grant Thornton report, the report which Deputy Troy would be familiar with, the company has now embarked on developing a new plan to address the company's loss making situation and restore it to a sustainable future. The company aims to have this plan in the next few weeks.

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