Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

May the National Transport Authority use resources raised by the Commission for Taxi Regulation for any purpose? This issue arose recently with regard to student registration fees when it was alleged a college was using these fees for purposes other than the welfare of students, the purpose for which the fees were collected. A number of Deputies raised this matter in recent weeks.

Representatives of the company which owns Citylink appeared before the Joint Committee on Transport recently. The company, one of the wealthiest public limited companies on the planet, has massive resources at its disposal. Contrary to what Deputy O'Dowd naively imagines, the operators seeking licences will not be small companies with one or two buses but in many cases will be major companies which have come here to take over large chunks of the market. It may be that these companies will decide among themselves which of them will have the market in Scotland, which will have the market in the Republic of Ireland and so forth. This is how some of the individuals in question think.

As Deputy O'Dowd and the Minister's officials will confirm, the discussion the joint committee had with the chief executive of Citylink was one of the most astonishing hearings we have had. The company appears to be prepared to ride roughshod over whatever regulation we implement. It is important, therefore, that the regulator will have the resources needed to invigilate companies of this kind.

While I accept the Minister's point on the levy, taxi drivers, some of whom are in the Visitors' Gallery, will argue that they were required to pay fees which were used as the income for the Commission for Taxi Regulation. This is an important point. I have received an e-mail in which the correspondent complains that the reason it is not intended that the National Transport Authority will have many resources is that the authority will not engage in regulation and we will have instead a free-for-all. This fear will become more widespread if the regulator is not properly resourced.

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