Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As many other speakers, I pass on my sympathies to the wife and family of Peter Mathews, who was a constituent of mine in my old Stillorgan electoral area before I ever became a constituent of his in Dublin South. The first time I met Peter was in a professional capacity as a county councillor back in 2003. He was, as many people have said, an absolute gentleman, a very nice person and a great man to meet and have a chat with. One would often see him around Mount Merrion in particular, but also around Dublin South. I pass on my sympathies to his wife, Susan, his four kids, James, John, David and Maria, his wider family, friends and a very wide circle of colleagues. It is very sad. I remember being at a road opening in Sandyford with Peter in the middle of June 2011 when the news broke of Brian Lenihan's very premature death. It is very sad that both Brian Lenihan, who was also mentioned today in the House, and Peter died very young from cancer.

I also want to raise the issue of Bus Éireann, which has been covered by many people. It is important that we remind ourselves that the Minister, Deputy Ross, is the 100% shareholder in Bus Éireann on behalf of the State. If I owned 100% of a company or was shareholder of 100% of a company, I would want to know what was going on. I would want to make sure the company and its workers and management were all getting on with their business in as effective a way as possible. It is not acceptable at this stage, when we could be facing an all-out transport strike because there is risk of contagion, not only in Bus Éireann, but onwards into Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus. It is important that we remind ourselves that it is a State company and one that has been around a very long time, formerly in the guise of CIE. It is 30 years old as Bus Éireann. For many years Expressway was profitable. We all know there are many reasons it is not profitable at the moment. It is not acceptable for the Minister to continue in this way. The Minister for transport is also the Minister for tourism. It does not reflect well if tourists coming into the country, who presumably want to go all over the country, which we want them to do, only experience a product near Dublin Airport or Shannon Airport. They should be able to travel all over the country. It is important that, when reflecting on his duties, he tackles the issue in terms of both tourism and transport.