Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and I also thank the witnesses for their contributions.

Dr. Sloman is knowledgeable about the cities, towns and countries that have introduced initiatives. Can she tell me the imperative for the introduction of initiatives? My party made a proposal that called for free public transport and had it costed. Dr. Sloman is absolutely right because we were astonished at how little it would cost to change from subsidised transport to free public transport. Unfortunately, our proposal did not get political support in this Parliament. What was the imperative? What particular set of circumstances, political or otherwise, led to transition and, consequently, good results in Dunkirk, Vienna and all of the other places that have been mentioned?

There was talk about the provision of public transport being fixed rather than demand responsive, and how that is, particularly in rural areas, the trick to ensuring that a service is used frequently and that cars are taken off the road as a result. Does the latter imply that the privatisation of public transport would be ineffective?