Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The Minister should confirm that one of the key findings of the Deloitte report was that subsidies to public transport and specifically to buses in most other European cities are far higher than in Dublin, which is something that Fine Gael conveniently forgets. For example, subsidies of 68%, 79%, 57% and 62% obtain in Brussels, Lyon, Zürich and Amsterdam, respectively, while Dublin of course is bottom of the league at only 29%. Bus Éireann, which received a clean bill of health in this report enjoys a subsidy of a mere 12%.

The key point is that workers have voted to go on strike, if necessary, because of the manner in which the Minister is handling bus transport. As the responsible Minister, is it not time that he rolled up his sleeves to ensure that commuters will not be left without a public transport service and that young workers will not be victimised by the outcome of the public transport policies he is pursuing? He should roll up his sleeves, engage with the companies concerned and come up with a fair resolution of this matter. For example, as I asked in the previous question——

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