Mr. Aidan Murphy:

I made the point several times in my presentation that the Bus Éireann board is conscious of value for money to the State and is careful of any expenditure. We do not have corporate entertainment and a strict code is in place for any corporate involvement which we operate. We can certainly provide the committee with details of that.

There is currently one board vacancy. Again, we have a good mix and will certainly have that vacancy filled soon. I have no concerns about the make-up of the board's skill sets in order to manage the company effectively.

With regard to 2015, the genesis of what happened was that the board in 2015 was increasingly concerned about trends in the company's financial position. As a consequence of that, approaching the latter half of 2015, the board asked the chief executive to come to it with proposals because of its concerns where the company might be from a financial perspective. In the latter part of 2015, the board threatened not to pass a budget for 2016, believing it would not be tenable. Reluctantly, on the final analysis, we passed a budget on the basis that by June 2016, the situation would have been resolved. The management, through its chief executive, presented a plan along those lines.

It was becoming clear to the board in 2016, however, that the plan was not being adhered to and it was seriously concerned about that. Despite promises to the effect of changes taking place, they did not happen. That is the genesis of the point I made. In the latter part of 2016, we appointed external advisers to advise us on the business plans that the chief executive and management team had presented. That is the basis on which that happened.

I reject totally that it was the board which was negligent in that regard. I would make the point that the board was conscious of the company's financial position. At all times, it monitored performance to ensure the company was sustainable. That is the basis on which the viability plan in the early part of this year was discussed with our employees. It is regrettable that a three-week strike took place. It was an unnecessary strike in my view. The outcome of the discussions that took place with the trade union representatives could have been achieved without a strike. Unfortunately, the environment was such that the strike took place and there was little we could do about that. At that point in time, if we had continued as we were, we would have been accused of reckless trading. Taking our responsibility as directors under the Companies Act, this was not a position into which we would put ourselves.