Results 6,781-6,800 of 15,840 for speaker:Robert Troy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: Ms Graham spoke about route 5. What area did that route cover?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: Ms Graham would seem to be at variance with the Minister who said on a radio programme in Waterford on 17 February that replacement services by the NTA may not be as frequent or as comfortable as those of Bus Éireann.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: When an Expressway service is removed, I suppose it is because it is not making money. I do not suggest the public transport service needs to make money. It needs to be subsidised but if it is not making money and the National Transport Authority, NTA, is tendering out a process, I assume it is subventing-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: Ultimately, the State will end up paying-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: -----and perhaps subventing a private operator to operate a service in some instances, although perhaps not in that instance. When Bus Éireann moved out of Portlaoise, a private operator was brought in and subvented.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: I have two final questions, the first of which is on the length of time it takes to access and modify a route. As Ms Graham is aware as I brought it to her attention previously, it took the NTA 12 months to modify a timetable for a commuter route between Mullingar and Dublin, which would not give me hope that it is responding to market demand. Has the NTA set down a timeframe for the length...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: My next questions are for Mr. Duggan from the Department of Social Protection. With regard to the Department of Social Protection, I remind my colleague here on the committee that it was his party colleague, Deputy Daly, who first mooted the introduction of a €50 charge for the free travel scheme. If he wants to tackle anybody about scaremongering, therefore, he might bring it up...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: On the free travel scheme, Mr. Duggan spoke about the way the funding is paid to the CIE group and that it has not been reviewed since 1973. I may have picked that up in the wrong way-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: It is now based on the number of people accessing the scheme, is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: What mechanisms does the Department have in place? Mr. Duggan said that 80 private operators are availing of the free travel scheme. Three companies sought a review in 2014.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: That is the question I was going to ask, namely, how often do surveys take place? I attended a party meeting last night at which this came up. There are private operators who took up the free travel scheme in the past but when people present their free travel scheme card now, they are told the operators are no longer taking it. What mechanisms are in place to ensure that private operators...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: There is no corresponding increase for the providers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: I refer to the additional passengers who are availing of this scheme in the period 2010 to 2017. In the context of what is going on in Bus Éireann at the moment and how it is haemorrhaging money, there is a need to identify why the increase in passengers is not being matched by an increase in funding to carry them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: He was leaving that to the Deputy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: I thank the Chairman. A review of licensing was completed by the NTA and given to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport before December. Ms Graham stated that the NTA did not have access to commercially sensitive information on the viability and profitability of the private operators of Expressway route services.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: That seems at variance with what the Minister stated. When we asked him to make available that report, he said he could not because of the amount of commercially sensitive information contained therein. My question follows on from the comments of my colleague, Deputy Ó Cuív. If someone seeks an amendment to his or her licence on the basis that continuing the route for which he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: I am not referring to withdrawing the licence in full, but to withdrawing a licence from servicing a number of towns along a particular route. Some operators won licences based on servicing towns along a route but because they claimed that servicing those towns was no longer commercially viable, they moved to providing point-to-point services.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: I accept that the NTA cannot force someone to carry out something that is not commercially viable but what proof has it of that if it does not have access to commercially sensitive information? How does the NTA know that the private operator is telling the truth? The operator can pull out more easily than Bus Éireann. Regardless of whether we like it or whether it is mandated, Bus...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: The NTA takes the operators at their word.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Situation in Bus Éireann: Discussion (22 Feb 2017)

Robert Troy: Surely it is the NTA’s concern. As Ms Graham has stated frequently, if those towns become non-serviced, the NTA is left to respond to gaps. It issues a licence in the first instance but if an operator sees that even though it is not losing money, it could make a higher percentage by cutting out certain towns, we will be left to respond. That is not right. This situation is not the...