Pearse Doherty
Question:720. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an assessment of the finances of Bus Éireann. [24121/13]
View answerTuesday, 21 May 2013
Questions (720)
Written answers
In its first 12 years, 1987 to 1999, Bus Éireann made profits of €17 million, which were handed over to CIE. It made net losses of €28 million between 2000 and 2012. Contrary to the perception held by some people, Bus Éireann has therefore accumulated losses of €11 million since its formation. The situation has got significantly worse in the last five years. In that period, Bus Éireann has incurred accumulated losses of €27 million, a position which is unsustainable and places the viability of the company at risk. The company developed a five-year recovery plan (2012-16) to bring it back to profitability, involving revenue generation, route changes and cost reductions. Without the necessary savings from changes to terms and conditions and ongoing inter-city service changes, Bus Éireann was facing annual losses of more than €11 million, which are simply not sustainable. Following intensive talks with the Labour Relations Commission recently, Bus Éireann reached agreement with the trade unions on 16 May on a range of proposed cost saving measures that will help protect the future of the company, the jobs of 2,500 employees and the 300 publicly subvented routes it operates across the country, as well as commercial Expressway services and school transport. I welcome this agreement which represents an important breakthrough. These proposals will now be put to staff members for their consideration.