Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

Section 10 outlines general provisions for the consideration of the applications for the grant of bus licences. Amendment No. 1 relates to section 10(2), which was discussed at an earlier sitting of this House. Some suggestions were made which we took on board. Section 10(2) allows the authority to consider submissions for or on behalf of a licence applicant to invite submissions of information from the applicant or any other party, and to examine any other matter that it deems to be relevant to the public interest in the consideration of an application. The amendment introduces a specific reference to a local authority in subsection (2)(b) to clarify that, for the purposes of considering an application for the grant of a licence, the authority may seek the views of any local authority in whose functional area the proposed public passenger service will operate. The nature of the amendment and the discretion it gives to the authority recognises that not all bus licence applications would warrant a specific input from individual local authorities. Occasional licences for once-off events, for example, are unlikely to give rise to the need for detailed consideration by individual local authorities. This was discussed at the earlier sitting and I indicated that I would try to accommodate local authorities.