Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----just inaccurate, and that should not be allowed to stand. I have never been in his house and he has never been in mine. I think I have met him once for a cup of coffee or a light lunch in the past 25 years. I have met him on other occasions which have been businesslike and nothing else. I therefore ask the Deputy not to throw across the floor of the House the allegation that the Minister is in some way compromised by friendship. It is not true. It is not the case at all.

I will answer the Deputy's question and some of the things she has said which are just not correct. She mentioned in her opening remark the privatisation of these companies and routes. There is no privatisation. There is an ongoing tendering process, to which she very accurately referred in her initial question but to which she unfortunately did not refer subsequently. It is a fine tendering process and is not in any way meant to undermine the incumbents, namely Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann. This tendering is for the benefit of the consumers and the passengers and it also benefits the staff. What Go-Ahead has done is introduce 425 new jobs and a large investment in the Irish economy. We must welcome this, and Deputy Coppinger should also welcome it. It is in no way meant to be a privatisation of anything. No assets are changing hands. This is just operators tendering for new routes, some of which they are getting, some of which the incumbents are getting.

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