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

I wish to make two final points. One of the most extraordinary NTA decisions is the fact that per kilometre for PSO services in rural areas is way higher than per kilometre for urban-based services. Those fares, at €20 return, are a huge disincentive when it could be €10 return to go the same distance for those lucky enough to live in an urban area.

We have very few services after 6 p.m., even out of the third level towns, the towns with hospitals and so on. The rural service is being run à lathe 1950s and not the 21st century, and it does not meet needs. It goes back to the question of paying €4 per head more for the urban bus public transport than the rural one. We do not have any clear commuter policy for those who need to commute 30 or 40 miles into the major urban centres of Cork, Galway, Carlow and so on.

That seems to be mind-boggling. The Bus Éireann dispute is a symptom of a much deeper disease, which is the idea that the people are down the country and any kind of a Mickey Mouse service will do because the place we need really good services is urban areas. I do not buy that. Having grown up in Dublin city and gone to live in the west, I expect my tax euro to be treated equally with everybody else. The rest of the people in rural Ireland are fed up of the two-tier society where our tax euro subsidising services in urban areas.