Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The company's school transport services are operated by it under an administrative agreement with the Minister of Education and Skills. The company operates 23 intercity and inter-regional routes under the Expressway brand. Passenger journeys on Expressway services account for approximately 10% of the company's total passenger journeys in a given year. These routes are operated on a commercial basis, on the majority of which the company faces competition from other licensed operators. Expressway is loss making and the losses are now threatening the viability of the company as a whole. Expressway services do not attract a Exchequer subsidy and there would be serious legal difficulties with the provision of any Exchequer funding for what is a commercial service operating in a commercial market.

The PSO network is at the heart of Bus Éireann's public transport services and important to our society as a whole. Last year approximately 200 million people travelled on a PSO-subvented bus or rail service. In 2016 we spent €236 million in total on the PSO programme. This year we will spend approximately €262 million, 11% more compared to the amount spent in 2016. The system needs more money, despite the fact that we have spent approximately €2.3 billion since 2008. I am committed to socially necessary services and increasing the PSO subvention as resources allow.

Since the reforms introduced by the then Minister, Noel Dempsey, the NTA has been the single regulatory and licensing authority of the public transport system. Alongside the PSO network of public transport services, there are also commercial bus services. They laboured for nearly 70 years under anti-competitive legislation dating back to 1932. The basic premise of the Act was, as the Minister at the time said, "to divert traffic into the hands" of what were then the three big players in the transport industry. It was this legislation that Noel Dempsey sought to reform. He introduced for debate in the Oireachtas the Public Transport Regulation Bill 2009. He recognised the need for change and, in his introductory remarks, stated: "This Bill places the bus passenger at the centre of a new transformed national bus licensing regime." Since the Oireachtas passed that Act, I am glad to say the passenger has been moved to the centre of policy on commercial bus licensing and gained through the provision of more services, better frequencies and competitive fares. Passenger numbers have increased substantially. In 2015 approximately 23 million passengers travelled on a commercial service, or 9.5% more than in the year before.

Contrary to some of the commentary, there has not been market saturation or market deregulation as such. The market is still regulated, just in a different way than previously. This is not to say a commercial bus service operates in the same manner as a PSO service. Of course, it does not. The commercial operator is motivated by profit, as one would expect.

I recognise that we have had instances whereby commercial operators have reconfigured commercial services in the past with the result that certain towns and villages lost a public transport connection but let us not forget that under the legislation passed by the Oireachtas, the NTA has the necessary statutory powers to ensure continued public transport connectivity regardless of decisions taken by any individual operator. The NTA has assured rural Ireland that it can, and will, step into any area, consult local communities and assess what public transport services are required. The NTA will ensure rural communities will stay connected even if there are changes to Bus Éireann Expressway services. It could be little plainer than that.

It is clear that the dispute at Bus Éireann requires urgent discussions between management and trade unions without preconditions. The State can and will assist through the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. Bus Éireann is now developing a new plan which it hopes will restore the company to a sustainable future. As to PSO bus services in rural Ireland, Bus Éireann will continue to offer socially necessary services and, importantly, will focus on offering the taxpayer real value for money in return for Exchequer financial support. Outside of that core challenge there is a strong legal framework and a key role for the NTA. As regards the licensing of bus services, my Department will examine the NTA's proposals for improvement of the existing licensing regime in terms of processes and enforcement. In addition, we will bring forward any necessary legislative enhancement that will further the interest of consumers and allow the orderly development of commercial bus services in the future.

See this speech in context