Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Edwards. Senator Timmy Dooley is in the next committee room discussing something far less important than this and I will be taking his speaking slot. I will take a few minutes and then I will bring in Senator Doherty and Deputies Smith and O'Rourke and so on.

A lot of this has been in the ether for a while from all of the operators. I have met with various representatives from different organisations over time. The meetings probably came about, to be fair, from the Go-Ahead Ireland meeting which showed us just how long the timelines are. Mr. Edwards addressed this in his opening statement, and obviously it applies to all operators. At the moment we are talking about four weeks. If Go-Ahead Ireland hires someone, it is four weeks, at best, before the company can get the person the theory test. If the person passes that theory test it is about three to four weeks before Go-Ahead Ireland can then get them onto a real, practical test.