Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I learned that the Minister was appearing before the committee this morning, I thought there was an air of hope in the engagement but it has turned out to be more like a scratched record of the previous engagement with the Minister. The authority I wish to criticise is the NTA. It has acted like a widow whose husband was only buried in the past week and who walks out the following day with a new man. The NTA has stepped in and straight away proposed alternative replacements to the routes that Bus Éireann proposed to abandon. There is no doubt that the Minister's constituency would like to see the Luas extended but what would happen if the NTA told the Minister's constituents that it would give them a couple of horse-drawn trams to fill the void? I am sure there would be uproar. There is a proposal to abandon some major Expressway routes and there is the issue of private operators on the so-called same routes. I ask the Minister to take two days out of his diary to travel the Expressway route on one day and travel with the private operator on the next day to the same destination, for example, on the Cork to Dublin route. The Minister will see a big difference in the time and alterations in the route. How can that be a like-with-like comparison? We seem to be up against a stone wall on this issue. That is the reason we are saying some finance should be made available. It is not like with like in terms of routes and competition. It is not the same. The NTA is doing its best to defend its role, telling the Committee of Public Accounts as late as last week in response to Deputy Aylward that Bus Éireann can alter its Expressway routes.