Mr. Hugh Creegan:

There was a review of the arrangements for managing the road transport service about five or six years ago. The number of transport co-ordination units was much higher. It was rationalised down to 15. One thing you would lose with a single entity would be the local knowledge and information that is essential. It is a local transport service we are providing. Therefore, we think having those units distributed around the country is extremely beneficial to tailoring the service exactly to what is needed in certain areas. There may be a case for asking whether it should be shoehorned into local authorities, but that has not been agreed or concluded yet. Potentially, that would be an obvious next step.