Ms Jean O'Sullivan:

One of the biggest issues, and the area in which we have difficulty that is not as easily worked through, is with regard to the mechanics. The market is very much saturated again for mechanics, particularly in Dublin. We can get mechanics in different parts of the country but we cannot even get any of our mechanics to potentially move to our sites in Dublin because of the cost of living and trying to find housing.

We are, with our colleagues in Dublin Bus, increasing the number of apprenticeships coming through, but that is for the future. The key issue is now, so we are also looking internationally. However, there is a cost associated with that. There is also no commitment from anybody who decides to come from Europe to work for Bus Éireann that he or she will stay with us for a longer period when we have already incurred the cost.

The biggest issue for me in the context of the talent market is that we have an ageing population and workforce. They will retire. We will also have new recruits. We need to manage the culture of the organisation for the new organisation that is now going to emerge. As Senator Doherty said, it is going to be unusual to have people working in any organisation for more than 15 years. It is a much more transient labour market in general. We have issues other than recruitment to think of.