Mr. Gerry Murphy:

I can confirm that Dublin Bus can apply to tender. We envisage that the contracts would be awarded and working in autumn 2016. At this stage we envisage they would be five-year contracts. They would probably extend right out to 2021. We have to finalise the tendering. I will not guarantee the period will be for five years. It could be four years but it would be that order of length.

The discussion has been about the 10% of routes that we are opening up to competitive tendering but one must remember that 90% of the service is being given to Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. They have met their performance targets in the contracts so I am happy that they would have 90%. I believe they run a very good operation. I personally think bus drivers have done a wonderful job in the growth in their services. They have trained people. Approximately 80 nationalities operate in the Dublin Bus system. There is a fabulous training programme. Dublin is unique in that when people get off the bus they say "Thank you" to the bus drivers. I hope that will continue. We will ensure that private operators that win contracts will have an appropriate training process for bus drivers of the same quality as the Dublin Bus programme.