David Norris (Independent)

Senator Ryan used the word "related". The amendments are related but I am a little bit confused by the grouping because I would have thought amendment No. 20 should have been grouped with all the amendments to section 40 since they deal with membership by members of local authorities. It is very interesting that Senator Ellis, a former distinguished Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, should have made this point, although I am sure the view is widespread.

I accept there are certain situations in which it is quite right to bar elected members but I do not believe this is one of them. I do not see any reason members of the Joint Committee on Transport should be automatically barred because they would provide a direct connection and that interface would be mutually beneficial. My amendments to section 40 also remove the ban on Members of the Oireachtas. The Minister is a bit delicate about that and perhaps we will argue about it when we get to that section.

The Minister talked about the need to get the best people. I hope that is not a suggestion that we do not have the best people running Bus Éireann. I hope at least one or two of them are pretty hot. If not, who is responsible for appointing them and why do we not get rid of them and put in the best people? We are entitled to get the best people to run these companies. However, I assume the best people are running them and that they are directly engaged and properly equipped to do so. I am not sure that is a completely satisfactory answer because if they are not the best people, what are they doing in these companies?

I am fairly concerned by what Senator Donohoe said in that if, for example, the Dublin transport authority does not like the way a bus route is run, it can start one of its own. To my mind, that would make a pig's ear of the whole bloody Bill. It will be worse than the Health Service Executive. I do not see that as a runner, although perhaps it is and I am all over the place on this.