Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister met the NTA a couple of weeks ago to better inform himself about the powers it had and he says he was reassured in this regard. He said they would not be found wanting if routes and services are changed. He said, "The NTA stands ready to assist rural Ireland". That is fighting talk. There are many agencies such as the NTA, the TII and the HSE, which have abandoned rural Ireland and this is one of the last of them. I wish the Minister well in his big portfolio but I plead to him to sort out the sorry mess in Bus Éireann. Many students and old people have no other way of travelling anywhere. Students have to travel to and from college and there is a public service obligation for pensioners. I travelled by train today and was impressed by the way an elderly lady was treated, with a ramp provided as she got on and one waiting for her when she arrived in Dublin.

For a long time Bus Éireann has not stepped up to the mark and I blame management for this. It has allowed the company to drift, wander and meander. We have all seen the lovely advertisement pictures of the red setter dog prancing along. We will be left with the dog and no buses. We will have no jobs either. People here criticised the new management, saying they came from the same stable as Michael O'Leary, but that might not be a bad thing because we need to badly shake up the management. Bus drivers have told me they are leaving Clonmel and other areas a half an hour after the private bus. They are being blindfolded and their hands are tied behind their backs, while the private bus is full. I do not know what Deputy Troy is muttering but I did not interrupt him. Fianna Fáil was in power but they did not give much help to Bus Éireann either. There are too many quangos and too many fat cats getting fatter and richer. Some of the management left fairly fast with good packages. I salute Ring a Link, of which I was a founder member. It is a three-county project for rural transport and without such things rural Ireland would be forgotten about.

I do not see many Fine Gael Ministers supporting the Minister tonight, though I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Catherine Byrne. We need to see that there is still life in the dog and that he is not a dead dog. We need to see him again but with the bus, rather than a rotting service which is being denied to the people of rural Ireland. We need the workers to be treated fairly and they need to make changes too, which they are willing to do. We need careful implementation and careful assessment and if the NTA stands willing, its time has come. Let it stand up and be counted and see what it can do for rural Ireland, instead of taking everything away.

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