Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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I wish to convey my appreciation to the Ceann Comhairle for choosing this matter for the Adjournment debate. Without casting any aspersions on the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, I wish to convey my disappointment that the Minister for Transport did not attend, given that he does not have a Minister of State in his Department. It is a pity that someone from the Department of Transport cannot be here to hear the case I am making.

The collapse of Mortons Circle Line bus service from Celbridge to Dublin has left a vacuum in the provision of transport services and severe difficulties will arise next week unless urgent action is taken. The current difficulties were entirely predictable. Bus Átha Cliath had a long-standing application for a change of route and an upgrade of frequencies before Mortons, which had a minimal service to Celbridge, launched an objection to the Bus Átha Cliath application and a counter claim. The then Minister made a surprising decision, refusing the Bus Átha Cliath application and granting a licence to Mortons for 37 routes in and out of Celbridge. This occurred in October 2006. I warned that Mortons did not have the capacity to fulfil the licence requirements. I suspected it was getting the licence to sell it on but that did not happen.

Mortons never fulfilled the terms of the licence, only running on the prime time routes and cherrypicking. Even then, it could not attract sufficient numbers to make that limited service viable. The reason the company closed was that it could not get enough customers to make it financially viable. This demonstrated the difficulties for a new entrant competing with a well-established service provider like Bus Átha Cliath. I hope the reply will set the record straight on the claims by Mortons that it was crowded out by floods of Bus Átha Cliath buses. In fact, Bus Átha Cliath was prevented from providing extra services to allow Mortons to get off the ground. However, it never did get off the ground. The old saying about the heat and the kitchen comes to mind.

From next Monday, a sizeable number of citizens from Celbridge and Lucan and those along the route to Dublin will be left without a service. They will be severely discommoded and many will be forced back into private cars on already heavily congested roads. Others will not have that option. An urgent solution is now required and is available. I ask the Minister to request Bus Átha Cliath to step into the breach and provide a replacement service, at least on a temporary basis, to the people of Celbridge, Lucan and beyond.

Bus Átha Cliath has the resources and capacity to do so but it needs the approval of the Minister. I urge the Minister to include the cross-city service to Ballsbridge and Nutgrove, that was unique to the Mortons Circle Line service, in the solution. This accommodated students from UCD and workers in the south of the city. Although he is not present, the solution is available to the Minister and I hope he accepts the case I am making. The Minister has a reputation as a man of action and I am confident he will demonstrate that by acting on this matter. The solution is available. Bus Átha Cliath has the resources available to fill the breach and not leave customers stranded next week. Will the Minister request it to provide that service?

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Transport regrets very much the loss of employment and the loss of bus services in the Celbridge area arising from the withdrawal of the Circle Line services. Any application for the introduction of new services to and from Celbridge will be urgently considered by the Department of Transport.

This incident highlights what the Minister has stated since taking up office, that the bus licensing regime must be overhauled. It underlines why the Minister initiated and brought the Dublin Transposition Authority Bill, currently in its final stages, to the Houses of the Oireachtas. The next stage in this reform process is legislation to amend the Road Transport Act 1932 which provides the statutory basis for regulating the provision of public bus services by private bus operators.

In accordance with the legislation, private bus operators apply to the Department for licences to operate scheduled bus passenger services within the State. Dublin Bus is not subject to this licensing system. However, the initiation or alteration of a bus service by the company is subject to compliance with a requirement to give advance notice to the Department and to compliance with the provisions of section 25 of the Transport Act 1958 concerning competition with licensed private operators. It is therefore open to any operator to submit proposals to the Department of Transport concerning the provision of bus services in the Celbridge area.

On 23 December 2002 Mortons Coaches Dublin Limited was issued with a licence to provide a bus passenger service on the Nutgrove-Celbridge-Nutgrove via city centre route. Subsequently, the company applied for a significant increase of services and to operate them on a return basis on this route. On 26 October 2006, the amended licence issued authorising the changes which would operate under the name Circle Line Bus Company, a subsidiary of Mortons Coaches Dublin Limited. The company made a number of complaints to the Department with regard to Dublin Bus services and these complaints have been the subject of ongoing communications between the Department of Transport, Dublin Bus and the company. Dublin Bus had been operating in the Celbridge area prior to the granting of the licences to Mortons Coaches, and Dublin Bus advised the Department that it was conforming to its obligations with regard to its service authorisations.

On 19 June 2008, the Department of Transport was advised that the Circle Line Bus Company was going into voluntary liquidation and that services operating from Celbridge would cease to operate from Friday, 27 June 2008. I will pass on Deputy Stagg's comments to the Minister for Transport, who is unavoidably absent from the House.