Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The intent of section 56 is to allow the authority to intervene to ensure the continued provision of public passenger transport services where there is a complete or partial failure by a public transport operator to provide them. The focus of the section is to establish the circumstances in which such an intervention can take place. An intervention can only arise in respect of a service that is the subject of a public transport services contract and is in operation. To ensure clarity on this issue, an amendment proposed by Senator Donohoe was accepted by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey.

The focus of the amendment now proposed by Senator Donohoe is to establish either a specific time limit of two years or time limits that would be determined by the Minister and subject to a notice to the Houses of the Oireachtas of any intervention by the authority. As I stated regarding other amendments to this Chapter of the Bill, an essential guiding principle that informed the crafting of the provisions in the Chapter concerned the need to ensure compliance with EU Regulation No. 1370/2007. The regulation establishes a specific structure for the intervention of a competent authority as an operator of last resort. That structure provides that intervention can only occur for a maximum of two years. Were the DTA required to intervene as an operator of last resort, it could only do so in compliance with that regulation.

Acceptance of the amendment would mean there would be a possibility that the period of intervention could last for longer than two years. It would also give a direct role to the Minister to make a determination on the length of an intervention which would not be consistent with the role of the DTA in exercising its role as the competent authority. As I indicated, that role is exercised subject to the provisions of the Bill. We are fundamentally trying to apply and be guided by EU Regulation No. 1370/2007 and, as such, I ask the Senator to withdraw his amendment.