Results 10,641-10,660 of 19,173 for speaker:Shane Ross

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I do not know whether the Deputy heard Deputy Varadkar this morning on "Morning Ireland". Did he?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: Deputy Varadkar said quite specifically that we would engage in discussions on the free travel scheme. This seems to conflict with the conversation Deputy Fitzpatrick had with him. We will engage in discussions on the free travel scheme. I confirm that I have been in touch with the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, I will speak to him and my officials and the Minister will engage on the issue of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I am very glad the Deputy asked this question because I want to make an absolutely emphatic statement that there is absolutely no suggestion of free travel being taken away from anybody. That is not what is at issue, and anybody who makes that suggestion is either being mischievous or misunderstanding what is going on. This is about how free travel will be funded in respect of Bus...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I appreciate the Deputy's plea and I know it is genuinely felt. I think it arises from a misunderstanding that I have a role to play in an industrial dispute. I do not have that role. I repeat that I am a shareholder; I am not a party to this industrial dispute. There is nothing I would like to see more than a sensible and satisfactory end to this. It is worrying a large number of bus...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: The issues involved are complicated, and some of the issues that have been raised are not to do with the pay deal. This is a company which needs root-and-branch and cultural changes if it is to compete in the marketplace. Whether this should be called restructuring I do not know because that is a very general word, but there are issues-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I will answer the question this way: there are issues involved in the public debate which are not exclusively to do with pay, if that is what the Deputy means.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: That is quite possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: Which report is the Deputy talking about?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I do know whether or not I saw it. A series of reports are coming through. If the Deputy is referring to the report of late 2015, which was presented to Deputy Paschal Donohoe, I was briefed on it. I was not in office at that time. I was briefed on it as I have been briefed on many of the reports to which Deputy Troy has referred. I did not send for it because I was not in office at the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: During the course of 2016, Bus Éireann worked on developing a business plan to address the loss-making situation in its commercial Expressway business. Several drafts of Bus Éireann's proposals were presented to my Department and NewERA, my Department's financial advisers, and were discussed. These discussions highlighted some shortcomings that existed in the draft proposals. In...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: My first point to Deputy Troy is that I have not been in office for one year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I have not been in office for a year or anything like it. I was kept advised by my Department about all the reports to which the Deputy referred. I am talking about the NewERA, the management and the Grant Thornton reports. On every occasion I was kept advised and up to date. It would be absurd to say that I was not. To suggest that I was responsible for something not happening for one...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: It is stretching it a bit.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I certainly saw the Grant Thornton report to which the Deputy refers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: The responsibility throughout that period was on the company to produce a viable business plan. I have given the committee the sequence of events of what happened and Deputy Troy is aware of them. There was a series of business plans and suggestions from the company. I have said quite specifically that NewERA looked at them and came to a decision on them. I have given this information...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I will try to answer as many of the questions as possible. The Deputy spoke about the hire of coaches for the figure of €7 million. He also made reference to insurance costs soaring unnecessarily and difficult to explain. These are operational issues which is why we have management and people operating the companies. I am not going to micro-manage any of those semi-State bodies, in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: Allow me to finish my sentence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: The Deputy should not ask me to get involved on a daily basis in the work of management which we have appointed to do this particular job. There is a board of directors. It must be remembered that there are several layers here, including me as the shareholder, acting on the Deputy's behalf and on that of everybody else, a board of directors, a chairman of these companies-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: Yes, there are vacancies on the board. No doubt we shall come to that point. Those people are there to see management is doing its job, and the management is being monitored on a monthly basis. That is not up to me. I take Deputy Troy's point about looking at the annual report and asking about what is happening. That is very fair indeed but do not ask a Minister to move in on details on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Current Financial Situation at Bus Éireann, the Expressway Service and the Rural Transport Programme (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Shane Ross: I am delighted Deputy Troy has asked that question. The Deputy said I received a large number of reports. I did and I was also briefed by my officials on those reports on an almost daily basis. The Deputy's question is a fair one. I did not micro manage but I do not know off-hand how many times I have met the chairman or the chief executives of these companies but I can get that...