John Clendennen (Offaly, Fine Gael)

I thank the witnesses for coming in. I have a number of questions and they can pick them up as they like.

Local Link is a fantastic service. Why was a decision taken not to build bus stops? We have a great service, which goes from town to town and it stops in many villages but there are no bus stops. It is shrouded in secrecy as to where the service is located. Who is responsible? Is it the Department, the NTA or the local councils? I would like to get a timeline on when the bus stops will be built.

The second issue is taxi licences. I appreciate that we are still short of the pre-Covid figures. The night-time economy is gasping for oxygen. I challenge the figures on the number of taxis operating at night-time. I extend my full respect to taxi drivers who make the decision to take alternative roles during the day, but this has left a total vacuum at night-time. What is the NTA's strategy or action plan for filling the void and when will it be delivered?

My third question relates to Leap cards. I want to help people travelling from places such as Offaly. We heard previous speakers talk about what happens in London and Madrid. Why are we not able to deliver a Leap card for the entire country in a 12-month period, when we see cities being able to roll it out overnight without any difficulty? I ask the witnesses to respond to those three questions first.