Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is the most Orwellian and misinformed reply I have ever received in this House. Whoever wrote it forgot that I actually put in the existing schemes in place. I hope the Minister of State will listen carefully to how the scheme works. Tenders are sought for services to the islands. According to the tender arrangements, only the islander fare is dictated by the Department. Tourists and non-islanders visiting an island pay at the commercial rate. All I seek is that the 20% apply to the islander fare, which is fixed as part of the contract. Since it would be foolish for an islander to pay a non-subsidised fare to an island, because it would probably be much higher, most of the Minister of State's answer is totally misinformed regarding how the system works. That the Department is more misinformed regarding how the system works than I am is hard to understand.

What I am asking for today is quite simple: do not touch the tourist fares to the islands or those of people like myself, who would pay at the commercial rate, which is much higher than the islander rate, and reduce the specific islander rate, which rate alone is specified in the PSO island contracts. I presume that if I take a private bus or hire one on the mainland and it is not running one of the NTA bus services, the NTA will not say there is unfair competition if the fare on the NTA bus route is 20% cheaper. Plenty of buses in this country are not subsidised or subject to a PSO and, therefore, the Chinese wall put up here today is totally false. From what I have said to the Minister of State, I hope I have demolished the logic of her argument and that somebody will revert to me with a much more rational argument as to why what is very simple can be done and equality may prevail.

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