Mr. Gerry Murphy:

We do consider who is already on the route because, as the Deputy says, there is no point licensing somebody to come five minutes before the current bus. That would lead to on the road competition and one company putting another out of business. We look to see if there are time slots available to let somebody else come in and add services to the public. Nobody has a right to the licences. Operators get three year licences but our guidelines make it clear that they do not have a permanent right to a licence. If they do not operate appropriately or if somebody comes in with a much better offer, for example, wheelchair accessible buses or much lower fares, which is better for the public, that operator will get that slot.

There are probably very few places where competition is critical but one is the intercity market which is the most lucrative for private coach operators where getting these valuable half hour slots is important. We have had very few applications for those recently. There is satisfactory provision by the companies already operating. The public interest is considered. If we did not consider it we would end up with a willy-nilly situation whereby somebody might say he was providing a very good service operating in rural Ireland at fixed times and somebody else would come in maybe on a loss-making basis, hoovering up the market by coming in five minutes earlier or something like that.