Mr. Aidan Murphy:

On the other questions the Deputy asked, the €6 million to €9 million was due to the continuing situation where we were having difficulties in terms of the commercial threat the Deputy mentioned. Certainly, our Expressway services were under threat because our revenues were decreasing due to competition. In addition, our cost base was out of line. As a consequence, our financial position worsened by €3.5 million between the two years, which is why we had to take the action that was necessary.

With regard to the competition, it is a fact that we are not going to do the race to the bottom. We have our employees and we have had difficult discussions with them about the future and what we can do, but we have worked out a mechanism for handling that whereby we believe we can compete. We do not have the same terms and conditions as some of our competitors, nor is that our wish. We want to have a fair and good approach to our employees that gives us a mechanism to be as efficient as we possibly can be. There is no reason that we cannot improve our efficiency to compensate for the fact that we pay a better rate to our employees, and we make no complaint about that at all. Our approach is to improve our efficiency, take down costs wherever we can and take down our non-payroll costs where we can so we can compete in the open market. It is our intention to do that. By doing that we believe we can compete and also provide value for money to the State.

With regard to wheelchair users, we work closely with the NTA on the provision of service. The NTA is involved in the procurement of PSO buses and all of those are being fitted with the relevant equipment and so forth to provide a service. Obviously, it is also up to the local authorities to provide the necessary infrastructure at the bus stops. We are working with the NTA and we are going along with its strategy in that regard.

Regarding climate change, we have looked at alternative energy mechanisms for buses. We have trialled some alternatives to diesel, although some of the later diesel engines have become very fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.