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

The next part of the Minister of State's reply will state that unlike the PSO route managed by the NTA, the Department of Rural and Community development does not subsidise all services on all routes. The NTA does not subsidise all services on all routes. Let us put that one to bed. Expressway and all sorts of private services are not subsidised.

They are not subject to the reduction in fares.

The second issue is that the Minister says many islands have subsidised and non-subsidised services. I would like him to outline the names of the islands that make up this “many”, given there are not that many islands around our coast.

The third issue is that the Minister of State has at last admitted - it is the only change in the reply I am getting ad nauseam- that there is a special islander rate but that it is confined to the subsidised services. That is how they can afford to give that rate. When someone wins the contract, they have advantages. Nobody is asking for the visitor fare to be reduced, just the islander fare, which is already 60% lower.

I will make a final point as I am running out of time. The Minister of State said they are not NTA services and they are not under the Department of Transport. I know that. However, these are Irish citizens who are availing of public transport. People do not take a bus from an island to the mainland and they certainly do not take a train. That part of the argument is totally false and is just throwing dust in the eyes, but not doing it very well. What we are saying to islanders is very simple, and it is that they should not benefit from the reduction in public transport costs that the rest of the people on the mainland are benefiting from. It is as simple as that. If that is the Government's attitude, I have to say I am ashamed to be in a party that is part of that Government.

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