Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also want to raise the issue of Bus Éireann. I know a number of colleagues have raised it yesterday and today. My concern is that people seem to be viewing it as an industrial relations issue, when in fact it is much bigger than that. Government policies are at the heart of the problems faced by Bus Éireann. An example is the Government policy not to give adequate public service obligation levy, PSO, subvention. It was cut dramatically over the last decade. It has been increased recently, but it is nowhere near where it needs to be. Subventions in other European countries run at around 50%, whereas here it runs at 10%. That is an issue of Government policy that needs to be addressed. The free travel scheme is only being subsidised by 40%. Bus Éireann is missing out on around €17 million in fees there. That will not be solved via industrial relations. It will only be solved by a change in Government policy.

I acknowledge that the Leader has asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, to come in. The problem is the Minister is not listening. The Minister's insistence that he will not intervene in the dispute is putting the cart before the horse. If he were to recognise the failures in Government policy from a funding point of view, and address them, it would make a solution viable. The difficulty is it would appear that the Minister is intent on driving Bus Éireann off a cliff. This company will close in May if the funding issue is not resolved. The trade union movement has made concrete suggestions to place Bus Éireann under the direct ownership of the CIE holding company, and to negotiate with the National Transport Authority and other stakeholders to build a proper future for our national bus company.

I remind the Leader that when I told him two weeks ago that there would be cuts to services in Bus Éireann, he said that I was scaremongering. We now know there are cuts to Clonmel, Limerick, Galway, Westport and Derry. I also remind him that travel passes are not accepted by most of the private operators that the National Transport Authority thinks are adequate to replace Bus Éireann services. This is a major issue for rural communities. It is a major issue for the west of Ireland. The Minister is failing. I ask the Leader to directly intervene. Otherwise the Government is heading into a general election when it is going to close the national bus company.