Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was a member of Dublin City Council when the Dublin bike scheme was introduced. We all acknowledge that it has been a huge success for the city and the city council. As previous speakers have said, the scheme should be spread throughout the country and further in Dublin. There is a significant cost attached to each station but the scheme, once in place, would greatly benefit people in the area. It would also help to alleviate the congestion problems in the city.

I agree with Senator Bradford's comment. We live in a country where it rains like hell as it has done for the past few days. It is great that people are encouraged to use bikes. It is great that they use bikes regardless of the weather but it is unrealistic to expect us to always cycle. We also need to ensure that the roads are in good condition and travel is not prohibitively expensive. Once travel, especially in rural areas, is expensive then older people can become isolated. Older people have free travel in many cases but let us think of the people who have not reached 65 years of age yet live in rural areas. In recessionary times - or at any time - the cost of travel can be a significant barrier and is something of which we always need to be mindful.

I attended the Galway Races this year. I brought my car because I could not rely on public transport but I do not mean any offence to the Acting Chairman. The city has 24-hour bus lanes but they are empty for many hours. We need to examine the problem. I appreciate the aim is to get people off the road. Galway city springs to mind when I think of bus lanes because the current situation grates on me as I travel there quite a bit. It is nonsensical to have completely empty bus lanes when there are miles of tailbacks. It beggars belief.

I wish to comment on buses that get us around generally and school buses. We had an interesting debate on the matter yesterday. I concur with Senators Bradford and Barrett that there is nothing in the country that would not benefit from open competition. Bus Éireann does a reasonably good job and I cannot deny that it transports children to school. The idea that it is the only company who can conceivably do it and is a safe pair of hands for the school transport system seems to be non-progressive. We need to open all of our transport systems to public tender. Aircoach and City Link operate - I am probably not supposed to mention commercial enterprises - so well and competitively in the market and make an argument for opening the school bus transport system to competition. I would like the Department to work on the initiative and thank the Ministers of State for attending.