Results 10,941-10,960 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Could Ms Graham forward to the committee the NTA's high-level goals as to where it would like to see its fare structure in, say, ten years' time and the objective basis on which it would like to see that fare structure based?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Senator Hopkins can go ahead.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: This has been a fascinating day. Would it assist the National Transport Authority and the three companies represented here if full cost recovery was provided for on the services provided for people with social welfare cards?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Will Ms Graham provide the committee with a breakdown of the figures for the three companies, showing the percentage of the real fare the Department of Social Protection pays to each of them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes, I am asking for general rather than specific figures, for example, 30% or 40%.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That would be very useful. We have heard a great deal about commercial services. This is a major philosophical issue. When CIE was founded in the 1930s, private services were operating all over the place. The system was found to be chaotic and unplanned and it was decided to bring services under one roof, with profitable services subsidising unprofitable ones. The idea was that we would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Who made the decision?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Who asked Bus Éireann to make that decision? Was it the Department of Transport at the time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Was a similar decision made in respect of Bus Átha Cliath?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: What Ms Graham is telling me is that it was possible, under the same European Union regulation and the same national law, to have one service provided on a total network basis and another provided on the basis of a self-declaration by a company on which services were commercial and which were subject to a public service obligation. In so doing the company discommoded itself by placing itself...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: One or other of the two systems is the appropriate one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I would describe the position as "an aisteach", but we will move on because the Chairman wants me to do so. Is it within the power of the National Transport Authority to insist on all licensed carriers accepting the free travel pass?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Could the NTA insist that they all accept it? For example, when I was the Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht, I insisted on Aer Arann and the island ferry services accepting the free travel pass as part of their contracts. Under the relevant legislation, can the NTA do likewise by insisting on any company in receipt of a licence accepting the free travel pass?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: If we had a Government that acted, as it is constitutionally bound to do, as a collective and it decided to reduce the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport money and increase full cost recovery on the free travel pass, could it do it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It could be done at zero cost to the Government. I will move on to the next question. Will Ms Graham explain to me why there are no services after 6 p.m. on the radial routes out of towns with third level services? Students are thought to be able to get home every evening if they live within 45 km of the institution they attend because that is the way grants are structured. I am not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Surely somebody sets the policy. It cannot be done just by people asking for something. Surely the NTA, on behalf of the State, has some comprehensive policy in which it has a vision of what a comprehensive transport system should look like and what it should be working towards. That might mean changing, taking from one and giving to the other if things are unfair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We all pay the tax dollars. I pay the same tax as my colleagues up here. Rural taxpayers are entitled to services too but we do not get sewage services or bus services. I mean no disrespect to the witness but it seems to me that it is the Dublin transport authority and not the National Transport Authority. I will move on because the Chairman is getting very impatient with me. Has the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: What about Waterford?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Would Ms Graham recommend a change in the law?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2017)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We should note that because it is a very fair point that even though it calls itself the National Transport Authority, it is really the Dublin transport authority. That is very useful. What was in that plan for Galway and how much analysis was in it of the possibility of commuter rail?