Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I move amendment No. 60:

In page 16, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following:

"(2) Bus Eireann has the exclusive right to ownership and responsibility for planning and operating the provincial and urban bus network outside of the Greater Dublin Area.".

This relates to the guidelines. The amendment looks to insert what I felt would be basic good requirements for licensing law. The group of amendments resemble amendments I have addressed already so I will be brief.

The amendment inserts a critical provision which the Minister does not refer to in the Bill. He might feel that he has accepted a necessity for longer-term contracts under European legislation for the two State bus companies. The issue is that a network exists, and any time we have met Mr. Tim Hayes, the chief executive of Bus Éireann, he has made the basic point to the Oireachtas committee that he runs a network, which can be seen on a map of the country and which has a critical role in keeping connectivity and giving alternatives to the 20% of rural dwellers who do not have their own car or access to private transport. The grave concern is that we will allow the network to be gradually eroded. I made the point earlier in discussing the Bill.

The simplest way to proceed is to indicate that Bus Éireann will maintain the network. We are used to having semi-State and commercial State bodies with a designated operator of the network. Effectively, part of the ESB is designated as the network manager. In the previous Dáil the Minister had responsibility for this area and I was the Labour spokesperson on it. We have effectively given the ESB a mandate which emerged through our discussions in the last Dáil to be the sustainable network manager for the country. Bus Éireann is a different business but it is analogous. It would be useful for the Minister to accept amendment No. 60.

This is a series of amendments which seek to add to the guidelines. Amendment No. 61 would insert "all operators, fleets and bus infrastructure [would] comply with the highest health, safety and accessibility legislation, regulations and standards,". Amendment No. 62 would insert a new paragraph (e), which would read "maintain the highest standard of working conditions with fair and reasonable salaries for all transport workers including those established by collective agreement obligations,". I made this point earlier and we voted on it. This is the last opportunity for the Minister to come on board the bus of fairness to ensure this is in the legislation. Unfortunately, if the legislation is unclear or is without guidelines, people will take advantage of it. Therefore, I urge the Minister to accept amendment No. 62.

Amendment No. 63 provides a new subsection which would ensure the legislation would "(f) have due regard for the development of a fully integrated national bus transport network including the provision of local rural transport services,". This is my last chance to make a plea that the rural transport service be allowed survive budget cuts next Wednesday week. We hope that the desolation we will have to cope with at the next general election will not include the rural transport network which is doing a great job.

In amendment No. 64 I provide for paragraph (g) "shall include requirements for public consultation,". I continue to call for the need for public consultation and if I was amending the Bill in the future, I would go with this. However, I understand the Minister's point with regard to commercial sensitivities. Amendment No. 65 provides the section "shall include minimum notice periods to revoke or amend licenses,". This is a point I raised already.

Amendment No. 66 deals with an issue we have not had a chance to deal with, although the Minister said he might take another look at it. This amendment is based on my reading of the Office of Fair Trading report on the British market. The amendment suggests including in the guidelines a clause that would specify anti-competitive practices and abuses. The key issue in this regard is exclusivity. This basically means the practice where an operator runs a bus just ahead of, and possibly behind, another bus making it difficult for a company to draw up a development plan in the face of this messing and anti-competitive behaviour. We know from transport literature that the public tends to take the first bus because fares are usually similar. Other practices I have mentioned are salami-slicing and gaming of routes, which were spectacularly identified by the Office of Fair Trading in the United Kingdom. We must try to avoid this happening here by ensuring we provide in the legislation to prevent it. The Minister's guidelines have not specified any well-known anti-competitive practices in either regulated or deregulated transport markets. I urge him to consider covering this issue by including a provision on the lines of amendment No. 66.

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