The Road Transport Act provides the statutory basis for regulating the provision of public bus services. In accordance with that legislation, private bus operators apply to my Department for licences to operate scheduled bus passenger services within the State. Applications are dealt with in date order from the date of their receipt.
Two applications have been lodged with my Department for bus services to operate on the route in question. Following the consideration of the first application, a licence offer was issued by my Department on 16th January 2009, in which certain restrictions to the overall proposals made by that operator were proposed. In a response dated 19th June 2009 the operators declined to accept the terms of the offer and, as previously informed on 12th June 2009, no further consideration was given to their application.
My Department is currently finalising the consideration of the second application from another operator for an express service between Dalkey and Dublin Airport and the licence is expected to be issued shortly. Details of applications are confidential until a licence is issued.