Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

Last week I sat through a full meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport attended by the chairman and the chief executive and others of CIE and Iarnród Éireann. I do not have time to go into the details in the few minutes speaking time allotted to me. The committee would not have seen the report were it not for the fact it appeared in the Sunday newspaper. We would not have been able to ask the many questions needed. We expect the board members will be back before the committee and we will have a lot more questions for them.

I believe the Minister also commented but I certainly was not happy with the procurement systems. I am not able to say how big a problem exists as I do not have that information but if an interested bystander listened to what happened at that meeting, he or she would know that all was not well at that level. People I deal with locally would have nothing to do with such type of monkey work, so to speak, which may or may not have taken place. We must get to the bottom of this situation. For example, a person with a disability applying to the local authority for the smallest of grants, must procure two or three different tenders. It appears that on occasion, significant contracts were awarded without that basic principle being applied.

I hope to speak on Second Stage of the Public Transport Regulation Bill tomorrow or the day after. The Minister has a big job on his hands in order to operate and co-ordinate to the best advantage of the travelling public the various codes of transport. I refer to a bus service from Galway to Dublin which in order to cut out the competition is charging €1 a seat from Galway to Dublin. This is in an attempt to quench a company which has a full licence from the Department of Transport to serve the direct Galway to Dublin route. The company offering the €1 seat does not have a licence to be on that route.

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