Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

The provision goes against the spirit of what the legislation sets out to achieve. The Minister of State mentioned Galway-Dublin bus services, a number of which are provided by private operators. Healthy competition has allowed the public to benefit from a very efficient and well operated service from Galway to Dublin for a fraction of the price the public service operator was charging 20 or 30 years ago. What is the timescale applying to the exclusion of private sector operators from the routes in question? Will these routes be protected for the next ten or 15 years? If so, it goes against the very heart of what this legislation sets out to achieve.

On routes currently subsidised by the taxpayer, we will not find out for a considerable period whether a private operator could come in to service one of those routes as effectively as a public service operator and perhaps avail of only a portion or none of the available public service subsidy. We will not be allowed to know that until such a time as these contracts are terminated in ten or 15 years.

I welcome the legislation in general but the retention of this element, which harks back to what was wrong in the past, drags it down. It is an undesirable part of the Bill.