Ms Fiona Ross:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to attend today. I am honoured that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross has nominated me to serve as chairperson of CIÉ for a three year term.

With the permission of the joint committee, I will abbreviate my statement - members have a copy of it - and speak on the salient points. Before I start I wish to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of my predecessor Ms Vivienne Jupp, who held office for two terms during a particularly turbulent time in CIÉ's history and helped to deal with the implications of the economic downturn.

Following my graduation from Trinity College in 1987, I moved to London where I began what was a 25 year career in financial services. During that time I worked in a variety of roles in London, Dublin, Eastern Europe and the United States and returned to live in Ireland in 2002. From 2002 to 2009, I worked with Bank of Ireland and finally Goodbody Stockbrokers as a director of corporate broking. In a change of career in 2010, I was appointed by the then Minister, Mr. Jimmy Deenihan to serve as director of the National Library. I served two terms as Ireland's national librarian and on completion of that tenure took up a number of non-executive directorships in Ireland and in the UK. These included the UK national archives, the registers of Scotland, the driver and vehicle safety agency in Bristol City Council. In Ireland I served for three years on the board of the National Transport Authority, NTA. I am also currently the chairperson of Mental Health Ireland, Ireland's oldest mental health charity with a large nationwide network. I sit on the board of the Seamus Heaney Trust.

In addition to my undergraduate degree, I also have a business masters from UCD and was awarded a law masters and corporate governance and public policy from Queen's University in 2007. I have since maintained my interest and expertise in governance and currently teach that subject at the Irish Management Institute, IMI.

As most of the committee members are very well aware, under legislation, CIÉ has devolved certain of its statutory functions to three operating subsidiaries: Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann. CIÉ's role now is therefore to foster the autonomy of its operating subsidiaries while providing the necessary co-ordination in regard to shared issues and shared services. The group's shared services are provided by the CIÉ holding company, and these include Treasury, IT, legal and investigative services and the management of the commuter advertising network contract. As members will know, the group operates a number of defined pension schemes, which in common with schemes of this nature generally face serious challenges in relation to solvency in the long run. These challenges have been the subject of much internal debate and indeed were subject of a recent committee hearing in March. In my tenure, I will seek to encourage all stakeholders to actively engage in seeking a resolution to the challenges which the schemes face.

CIÉ also owns CIÉ Tours, an innovative and highly respected tour operator in North America, the UK and mainland Europe. CIÉ Tours is the largest single generator of inbound tour customers to Ireland from North America.

In terms of the role and the path ahead for me, I see six key issues, which I would like to address with members today. The first is around mobility, accessibility and social integration. Public transport is a key enabler of social integration. We should also recognise in addition to those with mobility issues, and that is a topic for conversation later this morning, that the majority of us have faced or will face mobility or accessibility issues at some point in our lives, whether it with children, and the buggy on the bus or later in older age. Therefore supporting the development of the network which always has regard to minimising issues associated with mobility impairment will continue to be a focus from CIÉ during my term of office.

Financial sustainability is a key issue for me and one that I will focus on during my tenure. In order to deliver on a statutory mandate and to effectively support its operating subsidiaries, CIÉ must operate in a financially sustainable manner while keeping focus on the evolving needs of our customers. In this regard a principal issue that we recognise is that the regulatory environment in which CIÉ operates removes control over many of the levers one might use to manage financial sustainability. Setting up levels of funding, fares, routes, timetables and PSO contract are not within our control. CIÉ will continue to address this challenge. Since 2008 Exchequer-funded PSO contract payments to the CIÉ group of companies have reduced but at the same time passenger numbers have increased and are now up to 2008 levels. Achieving a reasonable level of return from its PSO contracts is essential to the continued financial sustainability of the CIÉ group.

As the economy develops we will need to ensure that the public transport service contract model operates to effectively support the delivery of public transport. CIÉ has a significant role working with the NTA and the Department to determine appropriate levels of funding for public transport.

The PSO contract renewal process which is about to commence is a great opportunity to link improved levels of funding with improved performance for the public in terms of continuous improvement in availability and reliability of all services.

As I have touched on previously, providing appropriately for the pension promise that is made to CIÉ employees in a manner that is affordable in the long run is a key element of achieving financial sustainability. I will encourage a collaborative approach to addressing this challenge with all relevant stakeholders.

As a former board member of the National Transport Authority, NTA, I am conscious of the degree of commonality in the objectives of both the NTA and the CIÉ group. Therefore a key aspect of my tenure will be to support the further enhancement of effective co-ordination between these two State bodies for the benefit of the travelling public in delivering on public service obligations. The long-term effective and efficient delivery of public transport services will be enhanced through a focus on ensuring that as public transport services evolve, we maintain clarity in the roles and responsibilities of CIÉ vis-à-visthe authority.

CIÉ will continue to work to the standards of corporate governance that have been set for State bodies. As Chairman I have a responsibility to ensure that our shareholder, the Minister, as a representative of the people is informed of the key strategic issues and challenges we face. CIÉ will continue to be open and transparent with the Minister and his Department officials and ensure they have all the necessary information to make policy decisions.

The recent round-table discussion on public transport policy was a welcome initiative through which all stakeholders were given an opportunity to feed into a review of public transport policy. This discussion provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to contribute to the ongoing formulation of national transport policy. We at CIÉ look forward to working with the customer, employee and other stakeholder representatives and the Minister and his officials to chart a path for sustainably-funded customer focused service continuity with enhanced capacity across our publicly owned public transport providers.

The national development plan has outlined significant objectives in the public transport sphere. In the context of the plan, CIÉ group again in collaboration with the NTA will strive to achieve greater stability and predictability of funding to facilitate the effective and efficient delivery of large scale infrastructure projects. Programmes such as BusConnects in Dublin, development of bus networks in our regional cities, DART expansion, fleet renewal and capacity improvement programmes for public transport will add tens of millions of additional journeys by public transport annually in the coming decade.

This leads directly to environmental sustainability. Public transport can play a significant role in helping to offset the growth in emissions that inevitably occurs as economic activity intensifies. The more people who choose to travel on public transport the better it is for the environment and society in general. CIÉ will continue to strive to achieve a lower environmental impact from its services and advocate modal shift towards public transport. Electrification of rail operations and the greening of the bus fleet can further enhance the already significant benefits that public transport provides in the context of environmental sustainability.

I thank members for their time and attention. While at this stage I do not have many answers to the questions they may ask, I look forward to working with them, as public representatives, and with other key stakeholders, including the Minister, public transport customers, CIÉ employees and their representatives and my former colleagues in the NTA, to develop answers and solutions to the challenges that may face me during my tenure.