Ms Andrea Keane:

I thank the Deputy. I am happy to answer from the Dublin Bus perspective. The first point I will make - and it is not that we are trying to debate the issue of the fines - but within Dublin Bus the way we always view penalties is that we examine them closely to understand the underlying cause. Why have we incurred this penalty? Have we let down the customer in some way? Then we look to rectify it. The issue at the moment is - the fines are substantial. They are higher than they were in the past - the primary reason we have incurred this penalty is that we are not in a position to deliver all of the services we have been contracted for. In some ways the issue, as we noted in our opening statement, is one of driver recruitment. I am confident that the company is proactive in that space. We have seen improvements this year and we will see more.