Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

These services are vital as they connect people who live in relatively isolated areas to the main public transport links. They are absolutely essential. They are, by definition, low-volume services and therefore are not particularly profitable. That is a problem with the entire model of how the NTA is doing this, by contracting services for which private operators like Go-Ahead Ireland can bid. That model means these services, which we need in order to get people out of cars and to counteract isolation, are not necessarily provided.

An integrated public transport system, which is genuinely public, will develop these low-volume rural services in a context in which the revenue from the high-volume routes can be used to cross-subsidise the low-volume routes. Does the Minister agree there is a problem with this model of private contracting out of the routes?

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