Mr. Gerry Madden:

Deputy Munster asked a few questions. The first one related to targets for the contract we have and how we are doing. Ultimately, we are managed on a day to day, week to week basis by Transport Infrastructure Ireland and without going into all the detail of all the metrics, there are some obvious key performance indicators, KPIs, and some important ones I would mention. Safety is the number one priority for ourselves as an operator, for Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the National Transport Authority. On-time reliability services follows closely behind that and the third is customer satisfaction. Those are three of the main ones we need to produce evidence of on a daily, weekly and formally on a monthly basis for a contract review meeting that is held between ourselves and Transport Infrastructure Ireland where any key actions or slippage from targets is discussed, formally documented and actions are put in place.

It is probably not appropriate for me to say that TransDev is doing a great job against all those metrics, that is more of a question for Transport Infrastructure Ireland but, broadly speaking, in terms of our safety record and following the process we have for monthly contract review meetings, we have an exemplary safety record. On our on-time reliability services regarding Luas trams, there are some challenges for us in the same way as there are for any operator in the city where things happen outside of our control and sometimes within our control, which means we do not have every tram running to schedule every hour of the day. If that happens, that is very transparent and Transport Infrastructure Ireland has a contract in place with us where we would incur financial penalties for that when that happens.

In terms of customer satisfaction, we have a series of ways of measuring that and that is externally measured. We work in partnership with Transport Infrastructure Ireland. We carry out a series of surveys for customers who can go online to tell us what they think. We also go out and meet our customers three or four times a year with members of Transport Infrastructure Ireland and we get a very live feedback through written and electronic responses from our customers as to how we are doing. I would much rather Transport Infrastructure Ireland was rating us, so the members would know that it is coming from the horse's mouth, but if I was speaking on its behalf, I believe it would say we are doing well against all those metrics. However, we can always improve.

Deputy Munster also asked about the profitability and if we make any profits where they go. I should not make light of such a question but it is not a headache I have had to worry about for the past two years. We did not make a profit last year. We will not make a profit this year.

Congestion on the Luas was the next question in terms of whether we have considered extending the trams. I will not take the credit for this because the credit should go to the National Transport Authority and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, but the new trams that are coming onstream for Luas cross-city in 2017 are longer trams. Regardless of the number of trams we have or how long they are, during peak times we will always have challenges in terms of capacity. Only recently we put in some additional services on the green line to improve the services for green line users because we had a particular pinch point on that line. Ultimately, the number of trams we run, their length and whether they carry bikes is something that the National Transport Authority, with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, would determine but we are always open to looking at ways of improving the capacity.

On the bike point, we are watching with interest what is happening because they are running a trial where bikes are allowed onto the network. However, there are some challenges with that. I am not a bike user but if I was to take a bike onto the network in Edinburgh, apparently I would need to have a Brompton bike which can be folded away and take up little or no space. I am also led to believe they are quite expensive. If we were to do that, even on a trial basis, that would be something that the National Transport Authority and Transport Infrastructure Ireland would probably lead and on which we would have a conversation. We are always open to exploring ideas that ultimately improve the customer experience but there are pros and cons to that.

We are not there yet but it is not an idea that is totally lost on us. I think I have covered Deputy Munster's questions.

Deputy Troy asked whether we receive subsidies. We do not. We are a private operator and are paid a fee to run the Luas for Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the National Transport Authority.