Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

In the past five years, €1.5 billion has been spent in a taxpayers' subsidy to CIE. The Minister has stated that while he has again increased the subvention this year to Dublin Bus, the service will worsen, jobs will be lost and there will be fewer buses on the road. In 2000, the Minister was part of a Cabinet that proposed the opening up to competition of Dublin's bus routes. The report, on which the Minister signed off, noted that the opening up of bus routes to competition in other countries, such as Sweden and so on, resulted in more buses, more passengers, lower costs to the taxpayer and a fall in fares. However, the Minister has absolutely failed to do this. In this critical year, with so many job losses in transport, the Minister has a golden opportunity to insist on basic fundamental measures, such as giving buses priority at traffic lights. He should insist on radical change and not simply leave it up to the unions and Dublin Bus, but should insist that such change happens now.

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