Vol. 513 No. 3
137 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the reason public transport operators licences were issued to a company (details supplied) the day following its date of application; if additional transport operators licences will be issued to this company; and, if so, the number in this regard. [2495/00]
An application from the company referred to by the Deputy was received in March 1999. Subsequent to the application there was further correspondence from the applicant and discussions also took place between the Department and the applicant. It is indicated to the applicant that the application was unlikely to be successful in the light of the policy guidelines in operation at that time in relation to licensing in the greater Dublin area.
It was suggested to the company that it might look at markets outside Dublin. Following those discussions a further series of applications were submitted on 1 June 1999 and one of the applications, from Mullingar to Dublin Airport, was deemed appropriate for the issue of a licence which issued on 2 June 1999.
A further licence was issued to the company on 6 September 1999 and a number of other applications are being considered. It is not possible to say how many, if any, will be approved.
