Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Senator Bacik is partially correct, at least with regard to my likely reply. Section 10(3) provides that it is a prerequisite for the consideration of an application that the applicant must establish that he or she has the capacity to provide the proposed bus service to which the application refers, that he or she has complied with relevant national and international legislation and that he or she holds a tax clearance certificate.

Senators will remember from amendment No. 1 that a provision was introduced whereby if a person loses one licence for any reason he or she will automatically lose the licence provided for under this legislation. This was not previously the case. It is considered that issues raised in the proposed amendment are more relevant to the existing regulatory code relating to access to the profession of bus operator, and a separate road passenger operator licensing is the subject of separate amendments proposed to section 2 and 19 of the Bill, rather than bus market access which is dealt with in this section. In that regard, they seem more appropriate to other legislative codes in the area of labour law and health and safety legislation as well as road passenger licensing legislation. As it transpires, further legislation in the area of road passenger licensing is planned to address recent EU regulations on the matter and the issues will be considered in the preparation of that legislation.