Mr. Billy Hann:

I thank the Deputy for the question and I thank him for the intervention he made earlier regarding the enforcement of bus lanes. We are crying out for bus priority and this includes the enforcement of the lanes that are there. We really appreciate it. I do not have a specific answer to his question but we are the only 24-hour bus operator in the country at present with regard to the services we provide. One of the issues we find on the services when they are very busy is antisocial behaviour, particularly on the quays. We work very hard with An Garda Síochána on this. If we are looking to extend licensing hours, we need to have a look and make sure there will be no unintended consequences with regard to antisocial behaviour.

With regard to increasing demand for the services, we would need to look at it with the NTA to see what is the potential increased demand, what level of additional service we would need to put on for it, how many buses we would need and how many drivers we would need. I am not aware that this exercise has been done yet, unless one of my colleagues tells me differently.