Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise to speak about a matter I previously addressed in the House, namely, Clare Bus and the fact that its back office support has been moved to west Limerick, some 90 km away. It tendered for the contract, as did the Limerick bus company. The Limerick bus company succeeded in the tendering process run by the National Transport Authority, NTA, which is regrettable. I very much hope that at this late stage some mechanism can be found to allow common sense to prevail. People in Limerick are not sufficiently familiar with the topography, geography or landscape of County Clare to identify and find people who live in the mountains of the Burren, the hills of east Clare or the tip of west Clare. Clare Bus and its great staff who operate out of Feakle know County Clare inside out and upside down. They know every byroad and high road in the county. It is very regrettable that, as a result of European procurement rules, the back office support for County Clare and its bus company is now moving to Limerick. The hard-working people involved with Clare Bus are coming to Dublin at 2.30 p.m. today to hand in a petition to reverse the decision which has been signed by more than 6,000 people from County Clare. I very much welcome them to Dublin. I embrace their petition and sincerely hope that common sense can prevail. I call on the NTA to reverse its decision.