James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I welcome the NTA to the committee. I have a couple of questions on the budget the authority has at the moment.

I begin with a question around Bus Éireann services, the price of which the NTA obviously has a role in controlling. The fact is we have a private bus system operating under the umbrella of Bus Éireann through Bus Éireann Expressway. How does Ms Graham think that is sustainable, with the NTA also giving in excess of €570 million in PSO funding to operate the same routes? Although they are getting a subvention from the State they are, in some cases, double the price. I will give her one very good example. There is an Expressway service that leaves Dungarvan to go to Cork. It passes through Youghal and Midleton on its way. That costs half what the PSO-funded, NTA-controlled service Bus Éireann provides leaving Youghal to go to Cork does, on a similar journey that is half the distance on the same road.

Why is that allowed to happen? The NTA has responsibility for setting the price but it makes no sense that we are giving hundreds of millions in PSO funding and then undermining that system by providing the Expressway service. In Bus Éireann’s defence, it is actually managing to provide a cheaper service. Are we wasting the State’s money by doing both?