M J Nolan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

It is timely that this legislation has been introduced after 77 years to bring greater clarity and fairness to the bus route licensing system. Deputies on all sides of the House will welcome the fact that we are bringing the public bus licensing regime up to date. Serious criticisms of the system that has been in place up to now have been made by the operators of private bus routes, in particular. I hope the Bill before the House, which will facilitate the much-needed reform of the licensing system by establishing a National Transport Authority, will have a speedy passage through the Oireachtas.

I would like to comment on the history of transport in Ireland. It has been very difficult to put an integrated ticketing system in place in Dublin. I hope that the National Transport Authority will work far more quickly than some of its predecessors.

More thought has to be put into the use of our public transport fleet. Hundreds of school buses lie idle for the main part of the day. Many of the school bus operators that are contracted to Bus Éireann to provide school bus services are able to use a little imagination to organise two or three school runs each morning and evening. I do not understand why CIE, which has millions of euro tied up in its school bus fleet, cannot make better use of that fleet, particularly in rural areas where communities are crying out for a public transport system. It is not right that public buses wait in farmers' yards throughout the day before they are used again to collect school children in the evening. It would be welcome if the new National Transport Authority were to focus a little of its attention on seeing how better use can be made of our substantial investment in school buses.

Ireland was a different country when the Road Transport Act 1932 was originally drawn up. At that time, one could not travel from Sligo, Galway, Cork, Shannon or Waterford to Dublin other than by car or by rail. Nowadays, there are daily flights from such centres of population to Dublin. I commend the Government and its predecessors on the welcome investment of billions of euro in our road infrastructure, which has led to significant improvements in the country's road network. The public transport network has also improved, for example by means of the upgrading of buses to luxury coaches for the purpose of bringing people between our towns and cities. I hope the new National Transport Authority will examine the gap in the system that causes rural communities to feel left out of such investment. I encourage it to do so.

I listened to Opposition speakers talking about Aer Lingus. I agree that the Government will have to address a definite problem in that regard. As Aer Lingus is part-owned by the State, there is an onus on the Government to seriously consider the problems being encountered by our national airline. Although it has been privatised, we continue to have a serious responsibility to maintain our national flag carrier. We should be seen to be interested in ensuring that it continues to operate as such.

The Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, which was passed by the Oireachtas last year, will be incorporated in the Bill before the House. Therefore, the new authority will be responsible for the regulation and control of all public passenger transport in the State.

We are aware that airline pilots assume significant responsibilities when they transport passengers across the skies. I may have missed a reference in this legislation to the similar responsibilities of bus drivers, who take charge of 45, 50 or 60 people on each bus. We are familiar with the health regulations that apply to pilots, who have to undergo stringent annual or biannual medical tests. The same criteria should apply to bus drivers, particularly in light of the questions that have been asked about the health and medical condition of bus drivers who have been involved in serious accidents. We have a responsibility to ensure that those who travel on coaches are in safe hands. I do not know much about the criteria that Iarnród Éireann applies to the medical examinations of train drivers, but I expect that they are serious.

The primary purpose of the Bill is to establish a system for the licensing of commercial public bus passenger services. We are familiar with the success of private bus operators. There has been a huge increase in the number of bus operators who are successfully serving the inter-city route between Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow and Dublin. I know from my constituency that there is an hourly service from Carlow to Dublin and on to Dublin Airport. Dublin Airport Authority has a lot to answer for because many people find it more cost-effective to travel to the airport by bus than to pay the exorbitant car parking prices charged by the authority.

We have to learn from the public transport experiences of other countries. I accept that population plays a large part in ensuring that certain routes need to be subvented. In Carlow town, we had a local service where a bus operator had a subvention for the provision of public transport in the town. Unfortunately it was not cost effective and even though the town council made a significant contribution towards its subvention, the use by the public was insufficient. This brings me back to the use of school transport.

I support the legislation. Given that we have infrastructure in place between rail, road and a fleet of buses in the ownership of the State, we should get better use of it. I hope the new authority will look seriously at getting better use for the resources we have put in place.

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