Fiona O'Malley (Progressive Democrats)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am concerned about what has happened to the bus market in Dublin in light of the fact that a private operator is being forced to stop services next week. What has happened is the kind of thing that the Government has promised to deal with over the past ten years. A private company had been successfully providing a service that was not provided before — from Lucan and Rathfarnham to the city centre — and commuters had become very dependent on it. Dublin Bus claims it has been operating within the guidelines, and it may be the case that is has not exceeded them. However, it is clear that there is not a level playing field.

Dublin Bus operates its buses with certain subsidies, affording it certain advantages. It is contrary to any principles that it would exploit those advantages to crush a competitor, but that is effectively what happened this week. I do not think we can stand over this kind of practice. When the Minister was in the House dealing with the Dublin Transport Authority Bill, I expressed my concerns about the need to update the 1932 Act. He indicated that the Bill was a priority for him, but that he would get around to the Act later. I accept that everything cannot be done in one day, but what signals are we giving Dublin commuters and private providers by allowing this kind of thing to happen?

I know the Minister is not pleased by the way Dublin Bus has conducted itself in this matter. The company may be technically correct in operating within the regulations but there is no way the State wants public money to be used to chase a private operator. Companies should go after business and this service was originally instigated because Dublin Bus chose not to provide the service. In my own area of Dalkey, we have a service to Dublin Airport, known as the Patton Flyer. It is long overdue but Mr. Patton was obliged to operate beyond the law because he was waiting for two years to obtain a licence. It is not correct that the process should take that length of time, and the Department needs to look at it.

Competitiveness in the transport industry has worked very well, especially in the aviation industry and shipping. Why should it not be the case for buses as well?

From every viewpoint we need to improve public transport, including from a climate change, transportation and congestion point of view. We constantly talk about how to get people to use public transport. Initiatives such as the Luas, the DART and improvements to the latter have encouraged people to use public transport. However, when a private operator is supplying a good reliable service and then the public operator comes in behind to try to crush him or her, that does not serve a purpose for anybody, and least of all the reputation of public transport.

It has been a struggle to get much of the direct information from Dublin Bus concerning the commercial viability of particular routes. A way around this has been through integrated ticketing, where one could clearly see what are the margins on particular routes. The State should be applying the subsidy where it is needed and to whom it is needed. We should not support bus routes that do not need a subsidy. It is like drawing teeth, I know, getting this information from Dublin Bus. In truth, however, it is not good enough that we have had to wait. This is the very information by which we can make informed decisions with regard to where we need to apply a public service obligations subsidy so that we can provide a better public service on particular routes. I accept the Minister is seeking to get this done. However, this week we reached a crisis in terms of what happened this week with Circle Line. I hope it proves to be a catalyst in developing change.

I also hope the Minister of State will be able to demonstrate to commuters that we value them and want them to use the public bus service. Consumers do not care who owns the bus or who is running it, as long as it is reliable. I should like to believe we can depend, deliver and develop a competitive bus market for the commuters of Dublin.