James Heffernan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to this House. I congratulate him on the work he is doing in the public transport system. I note with particular alarm a section from his speech that 2007 was the only year in the 2006-11 period in which CIE generated a surplus. He said that the total losses of ¤137 million certainly cannot be sustained and we would all agree with that. It cannot continue, so I commend the Minister of State's endeavours to deal with this financial hole in CIE's accounts. The Bill will go some way towards achieving that.

Part of the deficit is explained by lower passenger numbers, as the Minister of State said. The statistics have already been quoted by other speakers, so I will not go over them again. It is quite stark to see the 13% fall from 2008 in Irish Rail's passenger numbers and they continued to fall in 2010 and 2011. If that projection continues, I presume that trend will continue this year also. I will not go through all the numbers as they have been put on the record by previous speakers.

The improved road network has made it far easier to travel by car. The country has become even smaller due to the road network. I imagine that increased competition with private operators also has something to do with the fall in passenger numbers. As a public service, it is expected that Bus Éireann routes will serve every town and village along a route. That public service obligation sometimes hinders CIE. For example, if one is travelling from Wexford to Dublin on a private bus, there are one or two stops before one arrives in the city centre. With Bus Éireann, however, one can travel all the winding roads in and out of towns and villages. Perhaps pick-up points could be examined with a view to changing routes to make them more efficient.

There have been fantastic developments, as the Minister of State mentioned in his speech. We have seen the introduction of the Leap card, free Wi-Fi and real-time passenger information for major cities, which is welcome. Public transport in cities and other major urban centres seems to be working quite well. It is when one travels longer distances by public transport that there seems to be an issue. I am speaking about bus services. It is something that I cannot explain. Often, when I am waiting at a bus stop for a Bus Éireann service I wonder if I have missed it. There is an issue with timetabling. Are the timetables realistic? Perhaps they should be reviewed. On the last occasion, the bus was 40 minutes late, which is unacceptable for a public transport service. I spoke to people queueing for the same bus and they said: "It is always the same; that bus is always late." People can almost guess that the bus will be late and allow for that time, but why not make the timetables more realistic? That may be one of the reasons people are deciding to use alternative routes run by private operators.

I congratulate the Minister of State again on bringing forward this Bill which is welcome. Every time the Minister of State attends this House he seems to attract cross-party support for all his initiatives. That, in itself, is an endorsement.