Results 3,201-3,220 of 6,541 for speaker:Ruairí Ó Murchú

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: My first question was to be about hydrogen. If we can get our act together on wind power, we are looking at green hydrogen as a means of storage and all of those other facilities. We have seen that there have been moves with regard to hydrogen bus fleets. What is the set-up? How much will it cost? What is the roadmap needed - no pun intended?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: We will be able to swap one fuel system in and out

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I mean in the sense of as opposed to what is needed for electric vehicles. We all know of the difficulty with cars and I can only imagine what would be needed to feed a coach. The council's big asks are funding, streamlining and anything that can be done to facilitate those who are willing to work in the industry. I forget the particular phrase used.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is it. That is the business end of this. I will go through a couple of things. We all accept the 20% fare reduction is vital, or not having it can have a major impact. Mr. Crowley spoke about Matthews Coaches, etc. The 50% has been introduced. Will the council representatives go through how that works for coach operators because I am not sure? People probably have a notion of it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: What does the operator get?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: How does that work for operators? We are talking about sustainability. It was sold with the general sense that because an operator can offer the 50% it should be able to take more people in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Is it working like that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: The operators are reasonably happy with how it works at this point in time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That was a huge difficulty, especially for people who were looking at offering a service to students, etc.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Put your lights out.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There is that other unintended consequence that has been fixed through the use of Leap cards for students aged between 16 years and-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: All right. That still leaves out young people of that age who are-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Yes, and apprentices, etc. The numbers might not be huge but it is still a section. I have been over and back with the Minister about it. It is probably something we need to look at as a committee. It is a section of people who are, again, falling between stools and a section of clients and operators could be losing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It could benefit the company in the sense more people would be using it, but in an awful lot of cases the operators are providing services that are not being provided by anybody else-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: -----and we are talking about, as was said, the paradigm or modal shift. That is only possible if it makes economic sense to people and if the service is there. If neither of those two things is in play then we have a bad circumstance. The council representatives have already dealt with the issue around the licensing and all the difficulties and the processes. A small issue that came to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is it. The problem in Louth will be sorted. The problem with me is that in most of my questions I will add a tangent and nearly forget the question I asked. It was put to me that this is something that it should be possible to do online and in an awful lot of cases it is the same document being used over and over again. Is that right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: All right. That is something we could put down if we were making a list on the streamlining of functions and processes that is necessary.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Okay. There are two other issues. One is training for drivers and there are two elements there. The first is obviously ensuring the driver, the coach and the people using the service are all safe. The second is the financial savings from particular approaches to driving. I do not want to start talking about slowing down or anything like that but do any of the companies on the council...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Coach Sector: Discussion (19 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I accept that. The last thing I will throw in is probably a question I should have asked earlier. I was talking about savings and all the rest of it and we all realise the changed world we are in as regards remote working. A big sell used to be the taxsaver ticket. However, even if you are trying to use rail or buses in the public system, the NTA has not necessarily been able to...