Mr. Stephen Kent:

I thank Senator Buttimer. That is very much appreciated.

The provision of bus stops and bus shelters is the responsibility of the NTA in conjunction with ourselves. Consultation is a part of that. Obviously, we have some liaison with councils. Typically, all of those inputs are made. There has been great progress in recent years, particularly with shelters and trying to ensure bus stops are made more accessible in cities. A lot of that work is continuing. That is a steady state investment plan that is rolled out. The NTA is at an advanced stage of procurement for bus stop infrastructure, which it has been trying to put in place for a number of years. We are on the other side - we serve just short of 10,000 bus stops around the country, some of which probably need reinvestment.

Where shelters are put in place, that is typically by way of consultation with the city council to make sure that can be provided for and that footways, clearance areas and so on are all there. I will take back the point the Senator has made. He mentioned Maryborough Hill so I will ask what our input has been to that. That might progress it on the Senator's side and if he keeps pushing on the council side, maybe it will come together.

The Senator asked about Expressway routes. It was a difficult decision. We are very reliant on Expressway, which is integrated in the business. We have a large number of drivers, mechanics and staff that continue to work and deliver those services. They are commercial in nature and, outside of what we have with Covid at the moment, they are completely reliant on the cost recovery that is happening. Most commercial services out there are low-margin businesses. That is just a fact. For every route we operate, that is important, particularly when we are not in receipt of State money. We do not get subvention for those routes other than what we are getting currently. We were not getting a subvention in the period until July, so we ran many of those routes at a loss. Revenue loss went to 90% and even at the height of it during the summer, we operated at about 50% of revenue. One cannot operate a low-margin service with such extreme revenue loss. In that period, we ended up having to look at the routes individually, which was done with detailed consultation with the Department and discussions with the NTA. We had to take a view on the projections as to whether some of these routes would come back. Our view on some of the routes was that their long-term viability could threaten the long-term viability of the other routes we are doing. We took a decision on the 18 routes we operate to effectively come out of four. As members saw last week, we came out on the Limerick route on 29 January, we came out on the Belfast route and, currently, in relation to the Senator's area of Cork, the X8 services and connectivity have been reduced but the long-term plan will be to come out of that. That will be in consultation with the NTA so connectivity solutions can be identified in advance of any further decision. It is pure economics. We have to make sure a route can generate money to pay wages, to pay for investment in a new fleet because one cannot continue running old fleet and to pay for maintenance. It is as simple as that.