Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Would the Minister agree again that the Deloitte report on Bus Éireann stated that there was little scope for savings and that the company was largely efficient, after a rigorous examination? The Minister also agreed with me that the subsidy given to Bus Éireann is among the lowest in Europe for a regional public transport company. One can look to a range of jurisdictions, such as the Netherlands, Germany and France, and the 12% or 13% that Bus Éireann gets is among the lowest.

The Minister and his Green Party colleagues - it is shameful of the Green Party in Government - have slashed the national bus service. There is a plethora of such important routes: No. 122, Portumna to Dublin; No. 71, Cork to Athlone; No. 231, Ballyvourney to Cork; and No. 271, Tralee to Cork. There has been a further major cutback on routes such as No. 14, Limerick to Killarney; No. 40, Cork to Tralee; No. 52, Galway to Ballina; the Dungarvan local service; the Navan town service which is the Minister's service; and the Athlone town service. It is a shocking litany of slashing a service.

I repeat I do not agree with the approach of Fine Gael on this matter. The bus licensing Act is there for anybody who wants to put forward proposals to the National Transport Authority, but I do not agree with this constant, ferocious, visceral attack on public transport because that would end up with vast areas of the country having no public transport as private operators cherry-pick.

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