Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister. I acknowledge the value of the introduction of this legislation in the House and the positive experience we have had in relation to Bills in this area during the past two years.

I agree with the Minister, who stated at the outset of his contribution that legislation in relation to the regulation of transport in Ireland has been fraught. Such legislation has been, at times, outdated and irrelevant to the challenges faced by modern public or private transport and changes often have been incremental and frequently inadequate. At other times a tango has taken place with one step forward in terms of dealing with transport policy issues and two steps back owing to a change in philosophy on the part of the Minister or Government.

I would like to deal now with the legislative background in which this Bill is being introduced. Key legislation on the regulation of the private and public bus market in Ireland dates back to 1932. The integration of transport planning was really only grasped last year with the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008. Prior to that we had the Dublin Transport Authority Act 1986 which was repealed in 1987. The crucial issue of the integration of transport planning with land use planning was only dealt with in the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 and even then only in respect of the greater Dublin area, as acknowledged by the Minister in his contribution. There is a need for us to update and make relevant legislation in this area even in the changed economic climate in which we find ourselves.

On the philosophy behind this Bill, two objectives deserve to be acknowledged and welcomed. There has long been a contradiction in the regulation of the bus market with a particular Department bearing responsibility for the companies providing public transport and also making decisions on regulation in that regard. This legislation will resolve that contradiction and ensure we have in place a regulator that differs from the owner. That is to be welcomed. The objective this legislation presupposes of regulating competition within the bus market is also to be welcomed. My party has long argued for this. A move to an environment wherein one will have regulated competition, and in particular the prospect of competition even if that prospect does not materialise, will lead to a better use of taxpayers' money, the better development of routes and will ensure the needs of passengers and commuters are better met than is currently the case.

That being said, there are seven areas in which this legislation is deficient. These are the issues on which I will be tabling amendments on Committee Stage. The first issue is the steps forward in the Bill in terms of the integration of land use planning and transport planning. The legislation gives the national transport authority the power to get involved in the consultative process and to make observations not alone on regional planning guidelines but in regard to the development of area and development plans. However, the authority does not have this particular power outside of the greater Dublin area. We are creating within this legislation a two-tier environment with which the authority must work. It will in relation to the greater Dublin area be able to comment on and make observations and recommendations on the development of county and city development plans but will not be able to do so outside of the greater Dublin area. In this regard, its ability will be confined to the development of regional planning guidelines. We all acknowledge that a lack of this type of integration is responsible for some of the horrific planning decisions made, examples of which include estates and homes with no public transport. That the Bill does not tackle that issue is a grave concern. I am astonished to hear that while the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government was consulted on this matter it expressed no observations on it. I cannot see how the Bill would not be improved by at least giving the national transport authority the power to make selective observations and contributions on the development of county development plans. It is the county and city developments that deal with the real issues facing us. This is an issue on which the Green Party has spoken passionately and at length throughout its entire existence and I wonder whether it has gone missing in action. Where in the legislation is the action in this area?

The second issue is the role of a directly elected Lord Mayor for the greater Dublin area. In May this year, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government issued a press release to the effect that the chairperson of the national transport authority would be a directly elected Lord Mayor for Dublin. The DTA is being subsumed into the national transport authority. However, the legislation makes no reference to the directly elected Lord Mayor and what role he or she will play in this area. What does this mean? Does it mean we will have a directly elected Lord Mayor for Dublin who is chairperson of the national transport authority or that no directly elected Lord Mayor will play a role in this area? I strongly believe that the development of the role of a directly elected Lord Mayor will be a big step forward for local government. However, this legislation makes no reference in this regard. Again, where is the Green Party on this particular issue? Given the Minister's commitment to local authority development and his work in this area under previous portfolios, what role will a directly elected Lord Mayor play in respect of the provision of transport, in particular given it has been established that directly elected Lord Mayors worldwide tend to be more effective when they have a role to play in transport provision?

The third issue is the subsuming of the taxi commission into the new authority, a dissolution which makes complete sense and which I support. Legitimate issues have been raised in regard to what is currently happening in the taxi market, in particular in Dublin. It is a real tragedy to see reported in the media during the past couple of days the number of people involved in the taxi market who have taken their own lives. While I am not suggesting they have done so because they were taxi drivers, there is huge pressure on people involved in that industry, an issue into which the Joint Committee on Transport has put a great deal of work and made a number of recommendations on.

The Bill acknowledges that regulated competition is the way to deliver transport needs for markets. This applies in respect of buses and all other forms of transport. Surely, some form of regulation is also appropriate for the taxi market. I am a believer in free markets. I also believe that competing individuals will deliver in the common good. However, there are pragmatic measures that could be included in this legislation, namely, the new transport authority could be given the power to make observations on whether capacity has been met within the market of a particular county or city and the ability to declare a limited time period within which issues must be dealt with. For example, the authority could be allowed to tackle a situation where a particular individual is in possession of a large number of taxi licences which he or she is renting out to others. One would have to be blind not to be aware of the legitimate concerns in the area of taxi regulation. This legislation offers an opportunity to acknowledge these concerns and do something about them, but the Bill, as drafted, is inadequate in this regard.

A fourth issue of concern is the investigation of public transport accidents. In the last two days there have been four accidents in Dublin involving buses and last week there was the awful incident involving a collision between a bus and a Luas tram. In this context, it is appropriate that the new authority should have a role to play in regard to passenger safety on public transport. In the case of bus accidents, my understanding is that the ensuing investigation is largely undertaken by the bus companies. There seems to be no statutory provision whereby the conduct and findings of such investigations must be made public. Given that passenger and public safety must be the number one priority for any company involved in the provision of transport, it is somewhat strange that the Bill is silent on this subject. Will the Minister consider including a provision whereby the new authority would have a function in initiating or reviewing investigations of public transport accidents?

The fifth issue of concern to me is that the Bill has nothing to say on the subject of rural transport. I understand most rural public transport services are provided by Pobal, under the aegis of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Given that this legislation deals with national transport regulation as opposed merely to regulation within Dublin or particular cities, the new body should have a role in overseeing rural transport services. This should be done either through a stronger and tighter legal relationship with Pobal or by ensuring the Department of Transport and the new authority throw their collective influence behind ensuring rural transport needs are met and the appropriate services are in place. My colleague, Senator O'Reilly, spoke passionately about this issue yesterday. There is surely a role for the new authority in this area.

Sixth, we will have to examine the role of the new transport authority as a provider of last resort. In our debate on the legislation establishing the Dublin Transport Authority the Minister scaled back its capacity as a provider of last resort in amendments he accepted in this House. He recognised there could be a conflict of interest where a body functioned both as regulator of a service and a potential provider of that service at some point in the future. While the legislation before us is to be welcomed in removing one potential conflict of interest, in terms of the Department of Transport simultaneously owning public companies and acting as regulator of those companies, it seems risky to allow scope for a similar potential conflict to arise.

The seventh issue of concern relates to the licensing and procurement of bus services. There is much to be welcomed in the Bill regarding the clear statutory footing provided for the licensing of bus services. The crucial issue will be the licensing guidelines the Department produces in order for the Bill to be implemented. The last set of such guidelines from by the Department was issued only last month. Under these guidelines, the stated principal consideration when deciding upon whether a new route should be provided is whether there is an existing service. It is imperative that we deal with this issue. It should be a case of taking a step back and asking whether a particular sector of the market is currently in operation. While the Bill offers the framework for that to happen, the guidelines published last month seem to be at odds with this.

In regard to regulated competition, there is provision that bus routes operated by Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann will be protected for five years. I have little doubt that when regulated competition is introduced, these providers will continue to win most of the contracts because they are generally very good at what they do. However, we should take this opportunity to put in place on a statutory footing the performance measures that will be required in order to win these contracts. While researching the Bill, I looked at what Transport for London, that city's equivalent of the Dublin Transport Authority, was doing. That organisation publishes figures every month on its website indicating how the various bus companies are performing in different areas, on the basis of such measures as reliability, the amount of miles lost due to congestion and so on. No such information is available for bus services here. Introducing a statutory provision to ensure such data are published is essential to ensure the legislation works as we want it to.

As I outlined, while there is much to be welcomed in the legislation, it does not go far enough in several aspects. This is particularly so in regard to the issue of integrating land use and transport planning and the procurement and licensing of bus services.