Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

Currently a private operator can submit a licence application for any route he or she believes money is to be made on. There is no problem about that. In recent years in particular, the Department has tried to streamline procedures. The 1932 Act, to which the Deputy refers, is very outdated. It is very much a subjective type of approach to bus licensing, there are no appeals mechanisms and neither are there are any real penalties for those in breach of it. It requires reform.

As I told the Deputy earlier, in this whole area of public transport we need to prioritise. To attempt to do everything at once is a recipe for failure. It would be a help to have the DTA in place to allow it to regulate the bus market and check out a number of the areas the Deputy touched on. I have impressed on both Dublin Bus and its unions that the people in the greater Dublin area, and indeed Ireland, want an efficient and effective public transport system. As Minister I must ensure that taxpayers, who are paying the subvention — more than €300 million between all the CIE companies — get value for money.

I have a difficulty and it is something we are investigating in parallel to the DTA preparations, and the Deputy is right about this. I should know, and so should CIE and the taxpayer, which routes need to be subvented, and which do not. We are trying to find this out currently, and I am very committed. While people talk to me about the London model of public transport, I tend to look further afield. There is a good German model, which is a largely public sector-owned transport system. We have something of a mix, and that is no harm. However, my current priorities are to get the DTA in place, ensuring we get value for money, and reforming the 1932 Act, and I shall take them in that order.

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