Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathoirligh. I thank all the witnesses for coming in. I have met many of the people here in various guises over the past few months. I thank them for their collaboration. Like Deputy Boland and other colleagues, I am a great supporter of public transport. As a result, I assure the witnesses that all my questions come from a place of love and a desire to see our public transport system improve and go from strength to strength.

I have a few matters that I want to cover. I will start off with some of the operational parameters of the public transport system in Dublin and in our cities. On timetabling at weekends, I am frequently receiving complaints from passengers who want to use public transport and as all the representatives indicated in their opening statements, the number of people using public transport has grown significantly over the past 12 months. This is why it is very frustrating to get complaints from people who say they are not able to get on a bus because it is full, as Deputy Boland alluded to, or else the bus does not turn up. This seems to be a particularly acute issue at weekends, especially ones when there are major events on in Dublin city centre, for example. AS a result of various conversations with people in this room, it is becoming apparent to me that there seems to be some sort of block on operators providing flexibility in terms of the additional drivers they need to employ at weekends or to get permission to put on additional services to respond to demand.

I want to get clarity from our guests, Mr. Hann, Ms McKay and Mr. Creegan. Where does that sit? What is the blocker there? They can imagine how it looks to champions, such as myself and Deputy Boland, of public transport who are encouraging people to leave their cars at home at the weekend when they say that they were waiting at a bus stop for 45 minutes and two full vehicles passed them by. What is the answer I am supposed to give those people in terms of a public transport market, which is what the NTA wants to create, that is not responsive to consumer demand and does not facilitate demand? I will ask Mr. Creegan, first, if that is all right, and then Mr. Hann and Ms McKay, to respond to that.