Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Naval Service will take delivery of a new ship early in 2014. Will the Leader and the other party leaders confer, with a view to nominating a possible name for the ship to the Minister for Defence, Deputy Shatter? It would be appropriate for Members of a House which has proved to be unsinkable this year to arrive at a jointly agreed proposal for the Minister, Deputy Shatter, on the name for the new ship.

Yet again this week there was an increase in public transport fares. This follows the publication by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, of its most comprehensive Transport Omnibus, a most valuable document. It shows that since 2007 there are 51 million fewer bus passengers and 8 million fewer train passengers in this country. It is time the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport came up with something better than always increasing fares, particularly in an economy in which there has been zero inflation. That is part of the Forbes accreditation and I agree with Senator Hayden's misgivings, in that some of the prizes we were awarded are ones I would prefer not to have. In an economy with zero inflation, why were some bus fares rising by multiples this week despite the loss of 51 million bus passengers and 8 million train passengers? The mistakes were illustrated by what the Minister of State in that Department, Deputy Alan Kelly, did with his taxi Bill. After 60 pages he included exclusive bus routes for people who have them at present and the award of contracts by direct award without competitive tendering. That produces a system which results in nearly 4 million fewer passengers on Dublin suburban rail per year, 4.3 million fewer on the Dublin Area Rapid Transit, DART, 32.3 million fewer on Dublin Bus, 5.2 million fewer on the provincial city bus services and 8.1 million fewer passengers on the provincial bus services.

The policy is not working. There are obvious differences between the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, whom I believe is right on this, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly. The result of public transport losing 50 million passengers in such a short period is unacceptable. There must be competition for subsidised routes and competition on the routes. As I have said several times in the House, when the Dublin-Galway service was a monopoly there was one bus per day, and it travelled via Mullingar in case one was in a hurry. There are now 59. That is the type of advance we must have.

I also regret that the Cabinet agreed yesterday - the Leader was following up on this issue for me - to seek yet another deferral of a competitive health insurance market, which was due to be in place by the deadline of December this year. It has asked for another year. This has been ongoing since 1992 and the results are felt in people's pockets when they try to renew health insurance. Approximately 250,000 have decided not to do so. There are 50 million fewer passengers on public transport and 250,000 fewer people have health insurance. It is time the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Department of Health woke up to 21st century economics.