Mr. Garret Doocey:

Great. It is a great service and it worked really well in terms of the connection. When I got to Mallow I got on the train and away we went. It was really good. Whether it is a private contractor or a public bus contracted from Bus Éireann or Bus Átha Cliath, the cost is the cost. The bus will need to be paid for. Whether the bus is operated by Garret Doocey Limited Services or Bus Éireann, the taxpayer will be paying. The important thing is we provide through Iarnród Éireann, funded by us, a replacement service for those people who are using the publicly subvented rail network to ensure they can make their connections. I would argue that who operates the bus is a slight irrelevance. There is a cost attached to it. There would absolutely be a cost attached to the use of public buses. Those public buses would potentially be drawn off the public network to be utilised for the private benefit of those individuals making their journeys. The main thing is to get a service in place and get people where they need to go, but there is a cost to that.