Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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There is widespread shock and anger in the west Cavan area at the decision to cease daily bus services through Swanlinbar, Bawnboy and Ballyconnell.

At present there are three return services on the route, linking with bus services in Cavan and providing a good service for customers to Dublin and northwards to Enniskillen and Donegal.

The service is provided on behalf of Bus Éireann by two operators, Martin Leydon of Swanlinbar and McGeehans of Donegal. I know many of the people who avail of the service on a constant basis and they appreciate the excellent and reliable service of those operators that has been in place in the area over many years.

Last week, Councillors Sean Smith and John Paul Feeley spoke to me about the need to outline clearly to Bus Éireann and to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the absolute anger of the local community at this further attack on rural Ireland. Not alone does this service facilitate people from west Cavan, but many others availing of the service are from south Leitrim and south Fermanagh. People of all age groups use the service, including students, workers, elderly persons and people needing to travel to Cavan General Hospital or to Dublin hospitals. Councillor Smith detailed to me the exact difficulties that will be faced by so many people who spoke to him in recent days, who need this public transport and who are not in a position to hire taxis. Many individuals do not have immediate family members to bring them to hospital appointments or on other necessary journeys. Individuals and representatives of different groups have spoken to the local newspaper, The Anglo-Celt , and to the local radio station, Northern Sound, outlining the major setback this practical cessation of these services will mean for so many families.

To my knowledge, the route has attracted good customer numbers over the years. Indeed, a proposal was put forward by Ballinamore Community Council to extend the service. Such an extension of service would provide a direct route to Dublin for a large part of County Leitrim as well as for that important part of west Cavan and south Fermanagh.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue. I want to record my condemnation of the decision by Bus Éireann to withdraw completely the bus transport services from the towns of Elphin, Roosky and Dromad. I also echo the comments of Deputy Brendan Smith regarding the provision of services in Ballinamore. It makes no sense, in time or distance travelled, to change either Route 22 between Ballina and Dublin or Route 23 between Sligo and Dublin from the current route that services these towns to the route proposed by Bus Éireann, with two weeks notice.

Services cannot be removed completely from communities. We are told the public service obligation, PSO, does not cover this decision, but we are also told the National Transport Authority, NTA, has responsibility to allocate funding under the PSO. Surely it makes more sense for the NTA to provide financial assistance to Bus Éireann to continue to provide these services to the communities involved rather than remove a service completely.

These communities lost their local hospital in the past 14 months and are now to lose the alternative bus service to the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar which could help to provide an alternative for hospital appointments. We were promised a streamlining of the budget of more than €200 million for rural transport and the PSO, along with funding for HSE non-emergency transport and school transport services. That streamlining has not been done although it could provide savings and assistance to Bus Éireann, not only to continue to provide existing services but to enhance them. We are also told there will be a tendering for bundles of services which could include profitable and non-profitable routes. That has not happened either, although it could help to address this situation and provide a service to the communities involved.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I want to add my concern and objection to the proposed changes to the Expressway routes due to be implemented from Sunday next. Services are being changed or withdrawn altogether where there are no alternative forms of public transport. I refer in particular to Route 22, the Ballina, Longford, Dublin Airport route, where the stops at Carracastle in County Mayo and Elphin, Roosky and Ballinafad are to be removed from the Expressway service.

I will focus in particular on the Carracastle stop. I ask the Minister or Bus Éireann what savings will be made by the bus taking the new route. It is nearer to travel from Charlestown via Carracastle to the N4 than the proposed new route. The new route will increase the distance travelled. I have been contacted by a number of people who use this service and who do not have transport to the nearest pick-up points in Charlestown or Ballaghaderreen. They have said that there was no consultation on these changes. I am asking that the changes be deferred until the communities are consulted and provided with an opportunity to increase the usage, if that is a problem. We all understand that savings must be made. I would like to hear the Minister's response to this question.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Members for raising this important issue. First, it must be stated that I have no personal or ministerial power when it comes to bus routes and route frequencies operated by Bus Éireann. The provision of bus services and the routes they take are operational matters for the company management in conjunction with the National Transport Authority, NTA, which is the licensing and regulatory body for public transport. However, as the Government is the sole shareholder in the CIE companies, the re-design of this and other Bus Éireann routes is something of which I am aware and in which I am interested, so I have made inquiries with the company on the matter.

Bus Éireann operate a mix of services. Some of these services are commercial. These include school transport and Expressway which competes on the open market with private operators. The company also operates public service obligation, PSO, services. This PSO payment is made for the company to carry out important and necessary bus services which would not be viable were they to rely on commercial revenue alone. Expressway services do not receive a subsidy, either directly or indirectly. Bus Éireann's services are not as direct as their competitors and, due to that and the recession, Expressway has lost passengers and revenue as customers have opted for private providers who operate a faster service by bypassing smaller population centres. In order to gain competitiveness and achieve a break-even position, Bus Éireann had to re-design its Expressway services.

I appreciate that changes to the bus services will inconvenience some passengers. Given the financial position that Bus Éireann and the CIE companies are in, however, there is no alternative for the companies but to ensure that commercial operations operate on a commercial footing, and that means following the routes that most passengers want.

Rural transport is a critical component of public transport services and it is vital for the development of a fully inclusive society, both from a social and economic perspective. In January last, the Government approved new arrangements for the development and implementation of integrated local and rural transport services. It was decided that the NTA would be assigned national responsibility for local and rural transport services integration, including the rural transport programme, RTP, and this has been effective since 1 April 2012. This new role for the NTA coupled with its existing national remit for securing the provision of public passenger transport services will enable the development of better links between local and rural services and scheduled bus and rail services. This is something which is fundamental to a wholly integrated transport network.

Local integration working groups have been established in some areas while in others RTP groups have been working informally with potential partners to identify transport integration opportunities. Work has commenced on the inclusion of the RTP services in the national journey planner and on the inclusion of RTP and school transport services in reviews of public transport services being undertaken by the NTA in the South-Eastern Regional Authority area, in the Border, Midland and West area and in the South and Mid-West area. Consideration of RTP services in these reviews will serve to highlight transport needs and offer opportunities for integration.

The integration process is set to achieve the efficiencies required in the face of the challenging fiscal climate in which the country finds itself. Some of the challenges involved in the integration process are quite complex, involve multiple players and involve matters not always within our control. Integration can deliver a more complete and cost-effective transport service in local and rural areas that better meets the transport demands of all users.

As I have indicated, Bus Éireann must ensure it meets the customer demand for limited stop services with quicker journey times in order that Expressway services are commercially viable. Failure to react to this market demand would result in a loss of Expressway services altogether. I appreciate the concerns of Deputies with regard to the impact on certain passengers arising from the re-design of certain Expressway routes and I have asked the chief executive of Bus Éireann to meet Oireachtas Members and brief them personally on the changes to services in the north-west.

I will also direct the NTA, in its ongoing reviews of the PSO services, to take account of those places that will no longer be served by commercial services. It should be noted that future cuts to the level of subvention for PSO public bus services will limit the scope for any new or additional services.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, replying on this matter. I recall the Minister speaking eloquently and properly in Enniskillen about cross-Border co-operation and the real progress that has been made in the province of Ulster, especially since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The route I have spoken about is Enniskillen, Swanlinbar, Bawnboy, Ballyconnell and on to Cavan. The service is part of south Fermanagh and it has the potential to service an even bigger area in south Leitrim, as Deputy Naughten agreed, as well as west Cavan. Bus Éireann said in a reply to local media that it was due to low customer usage, but it refused to detail the records about the numbers travelling. To my knowledge, that route is very well used in the area. The reply given by Bus Éireann is unacceptable.

I appreciate the Minister making arrangements for Members of the Oireachtas to meet the chief executive of Bus Éireann but will the Minister put a direct request to Bus Éireann on my behalf that this route be considered a public service obligation? It is an addition to the Dublin to Donegal Expressway service. If necessary, we could avail of a very small amount of the large public funding that is given to Bus Éireann. Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal do not have access to rail services but I have read recently of new rail services that are not being utilised being provided in counties where there are both bus and rail services.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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Will the Minister ask Bus Éireann and the National Transport Authority to postpone the decision regarding routes 22 and 23 until the communities involved are consulted? I cannot see the justification for a situation where all the bus routes being developed are to bypass communities across the middle of the country. Services are being withdrawn in communities throughout the midlands. It appears to be a case of Expressway services from one side of the country to the other and forget about the people in the middle. I estimate that approximately 20,000 travel passes are being misused either fraudulently or otherwise each year. That is a significant amount of revenue lost to both Bus Éireann and the Exchequer. Surely it makes far more sense to focus on that than on the communities involved in this case. Does the Minister not agree that the provision of bus shelters along many of these routes would increase the number of people using the services? Bus Éireann has failed to consider the provision of bus shelters along many of these routes.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply and for instructing the Bus Éireann executives to meet us. I ask him to instruct those executives to tell us what savings are being made through the withdrawal of certain routes. As I stated with regard to the Carracastle route, Bus Éireann will be travelling farther with the proposed new route. Also, will he instruct the executives to outline what alternative they will provide for people who have no other form of transport aside from public transport in those rural areas? I appeal to the Minister to instruct the executives to defer this decision until more consultation takes place.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the company with regard to Swanlinbar, Bawnboy and Ballyconnell that between five and ten passengers per day use each service. I realise this is extremely inconvenient for the 20 people or so affected but there are probably as many people, if not more, who are not using this service because of the route it currently takes. That is the type of decision Bus Éireann must make when providing a commercial service. The chief executive officer of Bus Éireann met the Wicklow and Wexford Deputies today about a similar issue, and I will use my offices to ensure the Deputies meet the chief executive officer and senior management directly to discuss this. The Deputies know the area and the local issues far better than I, and ultimately Bus Éireann is the decision maker in this regard.

Expressway services do not receive any subsidy from my Department. Therefore, I do not have the power to instruct the company to defer or change its decision. Solutions can be found, however, albeit partial solutions. There was a similar issue in the midlands a few weeks ago and it was possible to identify public service obligation, PSO, alternatives for people. They might not be able to get the bus they wish but they can at least get a PSO bus to somewhere that is served by an Expressway service. In another case, it was possible to give a licence to a private operator on a no-subsidy basis to provide a feeder service to a bigger town where passengers could then take the Expressway service. They might not be able to get it in the town in which they live, but they at least have a service. Those are the types of options that can be explored.

On Deputy Naughten's question about fraud and travel passes, that budget comes from the Department of Social Protection. There is a working group of officials from my Department and the Department of Social Protection examining those issues. Given the scale of the deficit and the losses occurring across the CIE companies, like the budget we must do in December it will not be a case of either-or but a series of measures, including fare increases and service reductions, that will be required to allow us to continue to have public transport in the State.