Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Ross. As the Chairman and Senator O'Mahony said, she seems very well qualified for the position and I wish her well in the role.

Ms Ross alluded to the CIÉ pension issue. What is her understanding of the statutory role of CIÉ since the establishment of the NTA? CIÉ seems to own property and be responsible for pensions. Outside that, however, its statutory responsibility is minimal. Can Ms Ross provide an assurance that CIÉ will pay for an independent legal opinion for the pension holders and that there will be no strings attached? Is she prepared, in her new role, to meet the trustees of both schemes? Is she aware of the 2009 document prepared by the CIÉ group which outlined the difficulties in the scheme at the time? What is her opinion on that?

Can Ms Ross confirm whether CIÉ is subject to freedom of information? She might not be able to comment on that.

Is the board of directors full or are there any vacancies at present? What is the annual remuneration for those who serve as directors?

The three subsidiaries, Irish Rail, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, are all experiencing huge difficulties with capacity and funding. As Ms Ross said in her opening statement, even though the numbers of passengers have increased significantly in recent years, there has not been a corresponding increase in State funding. Therefore, they are effectively doing more for less money. She quite rightly referred to social integration and that good public transport is essential for a thriving economy and social mobility. Each of these companies faces huge challenges. The Government will undoubtedly state that the national development plan is coming on stream. BusConnects was announced for the second time yesterday. In the short term, how can we ensure that people can have a reliable and efficient public transport service? The only way to encourage people to leave their cars and use public transport is by having an efficient, effective, reliable and affordable public transport service.

The PSO contract will come up later this year. Does Ms Ross favour PSO services being provided by State-owned transport companies or would she favour putting them out to tender?

Ms Ross mentioned that CIÉ Tours is a very profitable arm of the organisation. How profitable is it?

In her reply to Senator O'Mahony, Ms Ross referred to Rosslare Europort. That is also very profitable. There would be opportunities there if the ownership model was changed somewhat.

As a result of the profits derived from that service, if the ownership model was changed and it was jointly owned between Rosslare Europort and the CIÉ group, it would be able to use that funding stream to extract, borrow and invest heavily in Rosslare port, which would be a major benefit to the general and local economies and, in turn, to the CIÉ group.