Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am concerned that there is no clear enunciation of a transport policy from the Government. It is unacceptable that this company is so distant from Government, although the Government owns it 100%, that the Government cannot have a vision of what public transport in Ireland should look like and how Bus Éireann will fit in to that vision. Most people are aghast at the complete lack of involvement from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross. He has emerged occasionally to say that he has no involvement in the dispute and cannot have any involvement. The Taoiseach knows that in various disputes over time, Ministers have been involved in trying to assist matters especially when the actual viability of the company was at stake.

May I ask the Taoiseach about the attitude of the Government in terms of public transport? Will there be a clear statement of what bus transport in Ireland should look like and how it should be constructed? Are we just to presume that it is to be a matter for the market to determine? Will the Government accept the view put forward by the Labour Party? When we were in Government together, we agreed on having minimum standards of decency for workers and that there would be a negotiated fixed floor below which bus drivers could not fall so that public and private would be on a level playing field.

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