Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, it is important to say that Bus Éireann is not being privatised. It will remain a State-owned company. The Senator, due to his interest in, if not obsession with, ideology, has not actually looked at this from a commonsense perspective. What is happening is that routes are being tendered out to contract. Different operators can tender for those routes. It is not something that is particularly unusual. It is already the case that the operation of the Luas, for example, is tendered out. It was tendered out very successfully and the Luas service is a very good one, with over 30 million journeys taken last year. It is already the case that a lot of bus services are provided by private operators and are very popular with the public. I ask the Senator to take that into account, to see beyond his own ideology and look at what is happening in the real world and at what real people are doing.

When it comes to the contract that is being tendered out for services for Waterford city and Tramore, it is open to Bus Éireann to tender for it. It can tender for the contract on its own or as part of a joint venture with another company if it so wishes. I totally agree with Senator Cullinane on one point: this is not about savings. This policy is not about savings or reducing subventions. I totally acknowledge that public bus services require a subvention. This is about getting a better service for the Senator's constituents, for the people who live in Waterford.

The NTA will draw up a set of services that it wants provided, it will say there is X amount of money available and will ask the various bus companies what kind of service they will provide for that amount of money. I would expect that whichever company wins the contract will be able to provide a better service for the same amount of money or, at the very least, the same service for an equal amount of money. I would expect in particular that the contract winner in Waterford would provide a weekend service, which is not provided by Bus Éireann currently. That is what this is about. It is about getting better services for the people who live in Waterford with the same amount of taxpayer subvention. If Bus Éireann can provide a better service than it currently does, for the same subvention, then it may be the company that wins the contract.

I understand that politicians come under pressure and heat from those who already have what they want, the existing interests, the "haves" who include the workers, the unions, the company itself and its management. However, I ask the Senator to have regard for his own constituents. How could anyone in Waterford be against having a better bus service at no additional cost to the taxpayer? If, for the same amount of subvention, we can provide a better bus service, how could anyone be against that? I just do not understand it, unless it is some sort of strange ideology that the Senator has which does not take into account that the most important people here are the passengers and the taxpayers. Maybe the Senator thinks somebody else is more important.

I can read the prepared response if the Cathaoirleach wishes but the bottom line is that the decision about Waterford was made not by me but by the NTA. If it was up to me, I would have tendered out a lot more than the 10% that is being tendered out. The NTA made that decision. It did not want to take too much off Bus Éireann because the transition needs to be managed. In Cork, the city is just too big and it could have damaged the future financial viability of Bus Éireann if Cork was taken. Waterford has a particularly bad bus service and a particularly low usage of that service. This is something that public representatives from the region should be welcoming rather than opposing.