Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport on 22 February, Ms Anne Graham CEO of the NTA said: "I cannot give an undertaking that the same level of service would be put in place in regard to those routes...". The NTA has a major role to play in this dispute. This dispute would never have come about if the NTA had been more considerate. The NTA has the power to grant licences but it does not have the power to amend them. Some private operators were granted licences on the basis that they would serve particular country towns but when they curtailed their services to some of these towns there was no clawback of the licence. How can we have fair competition with Bus Éireann on those routes?

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