Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

The core of the argument is whether we open it up to competition, as the late Minister, Séamus Brennan, proposed ten years ago. Under this legislation, it will not happen for at least another five years. That is to wait 15 years for change. We in Fine Gael say we will change this immediately. We will have no sweetheart deals with companies. We will let everybody in, be they State or private, with competitive tendering and bundling for choice for consumers. Under the Minister of State and the Labour Party, we will have no choice but more of the same. This means that vast areas of Dublin city have no choice of bus service. They have only the monopoly of the State companies, which is not good enough.

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