Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This is just another way of talking about privatisation if an adequate subsidy is not given to the public transport provider. Historically, even before the Government took office, we have not given adequate subsidies to public transport services. The cuts the Minister is imposing on the subvention will force the privatisation of bus services and the degrading of public transport services. We have one of the lowest public transport subsidies anywhere in Europe. All other European countries give a higher subvention to public transport services by a wider mile than we do. They understand it is a necessary and vital infrastructure for moving people around, as well as being a public service.

The consequence is that Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann are under pressure to discontinue or significantly downgrade unprofitable routes. The private sector is interested only in cherrypicking the most profitable routes. It is not the way forward. We in Dún Laoghaire have learned, to our cost, with the loss of many bus services as we pushed towards privatisation, that it is not working.

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