Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister met the chair of Bus Éireann last week who briefed him on the report. Surely, as the representative of the main shareholder, the Minister should have asked for a copy of the report so that he could study its analysis and ask his officials to brief him on it independently of the briefing from the chair of the company being reported on.

On the assertion of the Taoiseach and the Minister that rural routes will not be affected, I want the Minister to clarify what that means. Does it mean existing Expressway routes which serve rural areas will not be affected? How can the Minister give a guarantee that routes will not be affected when some of the proposals in the report include bans on overtime and the hiring in of buses to cover peak times such as weekend? How are we going to maintain services if the existing fleet cannot cope with demand and there is a ban on hiring additional fleet and on overtime?

The Minister spoke before about his vast volume of writing and the challenge of that vast volume in respect of his current portfolio. I took the Minister up on that challenge and looked today at an article in which he wrote about the then-Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey. It stated, "Its Minister and only shareholder, Noel Dempsey, has shown a reluctance to become involved in a full examination of the less transparent activities of this mysterious semi-State monster". That monster was CIE. The Minister who will not get involved and who is being reluctant now is Deputy Ross. I ask him to, please, stand up for Bus Éireann, its workers and the services they provide.

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