Mr. J.J. Kavanagh:

We engage regularly with the NTA. During Covid, we had a strong working relationship. We had monthly meetings about how we could get back on track. In our processes with the NTA, we have to apply for licences or renew existing licences. It is a slow process in many ways. There is a commitment that we would have an answer within eight to ten weeks but that can slide quickly. We see opportunities and cannot take them up, so that is a difficulty. Regarding rural transport, the biggest problem we currently have is that we are fighting with the car. In many instances in the past, commercial services operated in rural areas on a viable basis because there were larger families and more people using them. There has been a fall-off in the usage of rural services. The introduction of Local Link services has impacted us too. We were excluded from the 20% fare reduction scheme brought in by the Government at the height of the cost-of-living crisis, which meant that our passengers had to pay more to travel. It excluded them from using the services to the same extent. We were excluded again from the recent scheme for under-nines, which impacts us. If a TFI route or Local Link route is in operation, people will use that as opposed to using our services. That happens particularly where there are services in close proximity to what we are doing.

We have grown our businesses over the years based on demand from the customer and listening to what the customer wants. Inter-urban and intercity services have grown substantially over the years and continue to flourish. As said in Mr. Crowley's submission, we want to be part of the solution. We are the biggest player in the market. We look after 95% of all school journeys and 100% of tourists visiting the country travel in private coaches. We provide nearly 100% of all the buses associated with Local Link today. Private hires, concerts, school trips and everything would be nearly 100% done by the private operator. Without the private operator in the marketplace, the country would quickly come to a standstill. It is recognised that we provide these services but our passengers are excluded, on a commercial basis, from benefiting from the reduction in fares that was offered to the public in general. It is probably a rural discriminatory matter. In urban areas, PSO services are to the fore and these reductions apply, but we and our passengers are excluded from them.