Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I have read the Deloitte report. I acknowledge that the subvention for Dublin Bus is lower than that for other European cities but they are not in the financial position in which this country finds itself where we must cut spending significantly. Certainly, if Deputy Boyd Barrett's policies were pursued, by sending the IMF home and pulling out of the bailout, we would probably have to close down bus services and train services altogether as there would be no money to subvent public transport. We would have to make €18 billion in cuts in one budget rather than only €3.6 billion to €4 billion, as we must do at the end of the year.

I have no role in routes. They are signed off by the NTA, which is the independent regulator for public transport and which works in the same way as the CER or other regulators work.

I meet people all the time about bus services - certainly, public representations and my constituents. The Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, has had several meetings on bus routes. I meet the users all of the time. I am disinclined to meet campaign groups set up by political parties, but there have been other campaign groups. The most important aspect of all of this is that there is a public consultation process. None of these changes was made, and Network Direct was not established without a full public consultation process.

The changes were advertised, there was proper consultation and the matters were considered. It is not true to say that network direct is some sort of stealth cutting mechanism. Network Direct has been applied to my constituency and I am aware of how it has affected my area. In many places it has involved improving services and making services more frequent. In other areas it has involved a reduction in services because the routes had to be straightened out in cases where there were too many routes with too many legs and too many spurs and where services were too irregular.

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