Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the €36 million is required, the PSO will be €278 million, the fifth highest subsidy ever in the history of the State and we must remember that. The subvention increased rapidly in the boom but the subvention of €278 million will still be the fifth highest subvention in the history of the State. There are many people in many sectors who would like 2012 to be the fifth best year in their history. Many schools, hospitals and so on would happily be in the same position as CIE now.

When people say subvention in Ireland is relatively low, they do not take into account that it is not just the PSO subvention. There is also the railway safety programme, which involves over €100 million in grants to Irish Rail, and there are capital grants such as the €30 million spent on new buses.

In most countries the public transport company gets a single funding line and the comparisons that suggest that subvention in Ireland is low do not tell the full picture. When one takes into account the very substantial capital grants that go to the public transport companies, subvention is still lower than the European average but not lower by as much as people think. Most European countries need higher subvention because they have underground railway lines. They have high speed railways between their cities. As we do not have any of that, naturally we should not need the same level of subvention as those countries.

It is important to point out that Luas gets no subvention whatsoever. It is a publicly owned privately operated transport system and the only one in the State that does not require subvention and, perhaps, is a good model in that regard.

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