Shane Ross (Independent)

No, that is not correct. Dublin University is not in my constituency. The graduates of Dublin University are my constituents. It would be very wrong if we decided, willy-nilly, to excise some of that territory without the co-operation and agreement of Dublin University. We have to be careful that modern transport does not interfere with the great heritage we are privileged to have. When I was flying over London yesterday I saw some of its great infrastructure, which we do not have here. They have tunnels, underground stations, enormous structures, which one sees in the United States also, over-ground junctions and fly-overs, something we have not developed here but which we should consider. I say that in the context of expense not being so important. Roads and rail are not something we can measure and decide they are too expensive because in terms of eternity, nothing is expensive.

I want to deal with the Minister's other important role as sole shareholder of CIE. That is a responsible role but I suggest it has been a tremendous obstacle to transport in this country. That CIE has been a monopoly for so long, along with the other great monopolies of the State — CIE, An Post and Aer Rianta — has hindered the particular objectives to which those companies aspire. Their mission has been hindered by their monopolies. I say this in the knowledge that private companies will now be allowed to compete with CIE in certain areas. We should welcome that because it is consumer-friendly, even if the CIE unions do not welcome it. It is important that the new Minister is prepared to challenge, not in a confrontational way, the unions which say there should be no change in this particular area.

It is obvious to anybody that in the modern world we cannot continue with monopolies of this sort. We only have to look at the incredible success of Aircoach running its buses from the airport to acknowledge that this service is consumer-friendly and absolutely necessary in the present context. Aircoach was started by John O'Sullivan, who I believe used to be in Dublin Bus. He set up the business on his own with a very small amount of money but sold it recently for €15 million. That was a great achievement because he set up to compete with the major monopolies from the airport, and he has now expanded his bus fleet. He started off running at a loss. One only had to be on the street outside to see all the empty coaches driving past. It was a disaster to start with but people got used to these particular buses which they found were cleaner, more frequent and more efficient.