Fiona O'Malley (Progressive Democrats)

I envy the Minister his job as he will go down in history as the man who finally brought the Irish transport service up to date. To have finally dispensed with the 1930s legislation will be as significant as the introduction of the smoking ban by the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin. I am delighted this Bill is finally being produced. Residents of Dublin in particular, but elsewhere also, have suffered as a result of outdated legislation. I know the Minister has been trying for a long time to bring this legislation forward. In his speech, the Minister said this was the second part of the modernisation plan for transport infrastructure. It is long overdue. I was delighted to hear Senator Donohoe largely welcome the Bill. Other speakers have said it will be improved by discussion here. I was impressed by Senator Donohoe's points in particular, which included matters I had not thought of. He is right to say the Bill can be improved by the introduction of some amendments.

The Minister said we need to put customers at the heart of the transport system. He also stated:

An Agreed Programme for Government in 2007, therefore, incorporated the commitment to reform bus route licensing to facilitate the optimum provision of services by providing a level playing field for all market participants, whereby both private and public service providers would be licensed and operate under the same rules.

Will both public and private operators have equality in terms of benefits? I did not see any reference to that point in the Minister's speech. I am referring to the advantage public service operators have in fuel rebates, so will we see an end to that?

I intend to participate in great detail in the debate on Committee State. We finally have this Bill after 70 years and it is so important to get it right in case it takes another 70 years for the next one to be published. We must allow flexibility in the legislation and give the authority freedom to operate as it sees fit. I am encouraged that the Minister is cognisant that we cannot allow the current policies of public transport service providers, particularly, those operating buses, to continue. The policies are from another era and consumers have been left high and dry. It is intolerable that services are provided for operators, not consumers. That is fundamental to my thinking as the Bill progresses through the House.

Senator Quinn mentioned licensing and the experience of operators in the current system whereby there is no limit on the time it takes for a licence application to be approved. That needs to be addressed because it is unfair to keep businesses hanging on when a licence is pending. This proposed legislation was one of the reasons for delays in approving licences recently but it has been published and a timeline needs to be provided for how long it should take to issue a licence. I also have reservations about the granting of licences. I refer to section 18(4), which relates to the sale of a service. I am worried that when an operator is granted a licence, he or she can sell it on quickly. A monopoly may recur. We need to protect against that and I will seek to ensure that happens.

I refer to the integrated ticketing issue. All of us who have travelled to cities in Europe have experienced other public transport systems and lament our failure to introduce a similar system. Our transport infrastructure has come on in leaps and bounds. It is another reason I am annoyed when people say we have no legacy from the Celtic tiger era. There is a legacy and one will experience it on public transport routes throughout the country. When tourists visit Ireland, they find the system antiquated because they cannot transfer from one public transport service to another seamlessly. In Belgium, for example, a user can purchase a ticket that lasts an hour and so on. The situation is intolerable and while significant investment has been made in researching integration and problems were experienced when the current dominant bus service provider was asked to share information about bus routes, that cannot be allowed to continue. I hope the legislation heralds an era of public transport for the public and not for the operators or their workers. Special attention needs to be paid to how service providers can be obligated to be fully integrated. Is the Minister thinking about this?

Senator Donohoe stated the Bill seems to allow for the continuation of two types of service operators for five years, although I understood the period involved to be two years. All types of licences will eventually be uniform. Will there be a difference between the licences given to Dublin Bus and to private operators during the two-year period? Competition is good for all operators, including Dublin Bus, which will rise to the challenge. When competition emerged at the Spencer Dock development site, the company recognised it was likely to lose the contract. It upped its game and that demonstrates that when competition is introduced for a service and the incumbent is threatened with losing a licence it has held for a long time, it can up its game and put the customer first.

A 24-hour bus lane should not be provided for when there is not a 24-hour service. That does not make sense. Can this be outlawed? I hope the legislation will also outlaw predatory practices. Private operators believe a cowboy operation is in place, which is not the case. Safety standards apply uniformly to public and private transport providers but predatory practices are used by the dominant incumbent and I hope that will be outlawed. I look forward to further discussions on the Bill.