Mr. Garret Doocey:

As I said in response to Deputy McGrath, public service contracts - they are all public service contracts, whether there is a private operator or a State operator - contain the same types of key performance indicators. They provide for the same types of penalties that can be imposed, and penalties have been imposed on operators, irrespective of whether they are State owned or privately owned. The Chair mentioned his potentially bad experience with private operators. Also, Deputy McGrath raised issues with the operations of a publicly-owned operator. Issues arise in the delivery of public transport services, be they public or private. We can provide the statistics to the committee. We can also ask the NTA to provide statistics in the context of kilometres operated, to give a better idea. There will obviously be more complaints for Bus Átha Cliath as it has a much bigger network. Statistics per passenger or per kilometre operated would give a greater level of oversight of performance across the network.