Mr. Ray Coyne:

Yes. There are also rules around components. It was a significant challenge, but our procurement department and finance team met it head on and there was no impact on service delivery. Our cost base did increase, though, because parts were more expensive and our lead-in times were longer. We needed to engage with the NTA on managing that. Money that goes into our supply chain is money that is no longer available for additional services. These were the main issues.

Since we are part of the CIÉ group, we have a hedging policy on fuel. As a State organisation, we are risk averse when it comes to predicting the prices of fuel. We are not in the business of making profit on fuel margins. Rather, we are in the business of trying to minimise the cost to the Exchequer and maintaining continuity of supply. Our contract with the NTA recognises our fuel requirements. We used less fuel during Covid because there were fewer services and fewer people on them, so we were able to discount back to the NTA what would have been the cost of additional fuel. It goes back to the State when we are efficient.