Mr. Pat Maher:

The decision to tender was taken for a number of reasons. First, we wanted to test the market so we could see what alternative provisions there might be and what different approaches could be taken by other operators coming in. Second, we needed to test the market by way of cost so we could stack up against the direct award contract we had with Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann to see how those compared. Third, we wanted to look at the quality of the service and see if a new operator could bring in additional quality features. The tendering process produced Go-Ahead for the Dublin services. It has yet to start operating but will be operational later this year. Through this contract we intend to measure quality measures and customer satisfaction measures stringently. We also do mystery shopping and so on in order that we can see whether there are ways of providing a better service for the same spend or whether there are ways of providing the service for better value for money for the customer. The actual service patterns and service deliveries will stay the same because, as Mr. Creegan has already mentioned, the major plans for Dublin will be BusConnects and changing the network and the redesign that will be taken out to consultation shortly. That is what will really bring a major difference to the bus network in Dublin, and Go-Ahead and Dublin Bus will both obviously be heavily involved in the delivery and implementation of that new network.