Tom Hayes
Ceist:76 Deputy Tom Hayes asked the Minister for Transport the members of the National Transport Authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6556/10]
Other Questions.
Departmental Bodies.
The National Transport Authority comprises a chairperson, three ex officio members and eight ordinary members. The chairperson and eight ordinary members must be persons who, in the opinion of the Minister for Transport, have wide experience regarding transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration.
On 1 December 2009, I appointed the following people to the new authority: Mr. John Fitzgerald, chairperson; Mr. Gerry Murphy, chief executive, ex officio; Mr. John Tierney, Dublin city manager, ex officio; Mr. Frank King, ordinary member; Ms. Linda Saunders, ordinary member; Mr. Damian Usher, ordinary member; and Dr. Berna Grist, ordinary member. I am satisfied the members of the authority have wide experience in relevant areas. It is my intention to fill the remaining vacancies on the authority at an early stage. One of those vacancies is reserved for a senior National Transport Authority manager specified by the National Transport Authority chairperson with my consent.
How many positions will be reserved for the card-carrying members of Fianna Fáil? Most of the Minister's appointees — I exclude civil servants and members of State companies such as those mentioned by him — are connected to Fianna Fáil. He has appointed a plethora of Fianna Fáil henchmen throughout the country to bodies that give incomes of €12,600 or more. The key point is the need for transparency and accountability.
All the Minister's appointments should be subject to the consent of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport. Appointees would not be asked by the committee whether they have ever been a member of Fianna Fáil, because that would be taken for granted in respect of many of them, but about their knowledge and experience of the business they are about to enter. The Minister is not being accountable in a transparent way, as is the case with some other Ministers. In fairness to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, he has been much more transparent in putting nominations before committees or asking committees to make nominations. This is better than drawing appointees from cumanna throughout the country.
The Deputy is talking nonsense. He talks about a plethora of Fianna Fáil henchmen and so on.
The question is: who is in Dempsey's den?
As I said to Deputy Broughan previously, being a member of Fianna Fáil should not preclude one from being appointed to a board. I always approach appointments to a board in an open and transparent manner. I try to find the best people possible and if they happen to be members of Fianna Fáil or Fianna Fáil supporters, I will not exclude them for that reason, no more than I would exclude them because they might be supporters or members of Fine Gael. I do not inquire into their political allegiance.
The Minister appoints Fianna Fáil people exclusively.
I happen to know the political allegiances of some of the people I appoint but I do not know the political allegiances of the vast majority of the people I appointed. In this case the Deputy should recall that I invited people to nominate themselves if they had an interest in this and I selected the people from the list of those who applied. I will examine that list again before I fill the remaining positions and if there are suitable people on that list, I will appoint them. If not, as the original list was for the DTA, I will try to find the most suitable people.
Would the Minister not get a committee to nominate?
On behalf of the Labour Party I proposed that the members of the National Transport Authority should be elected by the people in the local elections. People could then wear their party colours if they wanted to. In many countries the transport authority is so important it is elected.
I address this question to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I have had about 140 or 150 questions ruled out in the past year and a half which related to agencies such as the National Transport Authority. The National Transport Authority is just up and running, the website has only recently been set up and immediately six or seven questions were ruled out. Can anything be done about this kind of thing — not the events of recent days — brings Parliament into disrepute?
That issue is currently before the Committee on Procedure and Privileges and no doubt the Deputy will talk to his representatives on that committee. It is a matter that a number of Deputies have raised.
It is very frustrating.
First, we heard yesterday that the heads of the Bill for the election of a Dublin mayor, the mayor of the four counties of Dublin, will be brought forward this year. What is the current position? The mayor was to be the chair of the transport authority, which was then extended to the whole nation. Will it not be a farce if we do not give the mayor a major input into transport?
Second, what is the current status of the National Transport Authority? How many staff has it got currently? I am aware the website is operating, its functions are set out, and Mr. Murphy invited Opposition spokespersons to a briefing, but to what extent is it up and running? Has it taken over the functions of the Dublin Transportation Office or how much further has it gone?
In that context, what is the current status of the taxi commission? Has the taxi commission effectively been abolished, with the National Transport Authority now the regulator of taxis?
Regarding the directly elected mayor of Dublin and the role he or she might play in respect of transport, as I told the Deputy previously, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, and myself are working together on the directly elected mayor Bill to ensure he or she has a meaningful role in the Dublin region in respect of transport and transport infrastructure. As the Deputy rightly said, the original Bill was for the Dublin transport authority and it covered only the greater Dublin region and had specific powers and functions regarding land use, transport, traffic management and so on. We are devising a mechanism whereby all those powers that were contained within the DTA Bill will be contained within the National Transport Authority, and the mayor will head that particular part of the authority. He or she will have a meaningful role in regard to transport. It is important that he or she would have——
There would be two chairs.
No. There will not be two chairs. There will be a national chair and a Dublin transport council——
In that case it will be a farce.
Deputy——
It will be just like the old days, with John Fitzgerald telling the mayor what to do. I lived through that. It was a total farce.
Deputy, allow the Minister to reply.
The Deputy is not showing much faith in the democratic process by which the directly elected mayor will be elected rather than appointed by anybody. He or she will have very strong powers and will be able to head up regional authorities. We must wait and see what happens.
On the taxi regulator, the taxi regulator will be subsumed into the National Transport Authority. Obviously, discussions have to take place from the point of view of industrial relations and so on but it will be subsumed some time over the course of the next year.
Would the Minister not agree that stuffing the boards of many of these agencies up and down the country with Fianna Fáil henchmen, which is what they are, brings the whole process into disrepute? Will he not further agree that it is time to scrap that out of date, Tammany Hall system and move to a new system where nominations are announced in the newspapers and people who wish to apply would go before the transport committee or another committee with accountability to the Minister and the Department. They would go through the names and appoint to that board the people who are best qualified. I have seen fine people kicked off boards because they were not of the Minister's kin and colour, and that is not acceptable in modern Ireland.
It is Question Time, Deputy.
I love the way the Deputy would consider political people appointing people to a board as being more acceptable than——
No. It is transparent and open.
The Green Party got its portion.
This is a transparent and open process, and people see it. I am answerable in the House for it. This board answers to me and I need a board that I can trust and that will not play politics one way or the other. That is why I pick as many people as I possibly can who I can trust to do the job on the board. Any of these people will stand up to scrutiny, regardless of whether they are members of Fianna Fáil on any of the boards I picked.
Road Network.
James Bannon
Ceist:77 Deputy James Bannon asked the Minister for Transport his plans to fund the reinstatement of national, regional and local roads here following the recent weather conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6510/10]
I refer the Deputy to my answer to priority Question No. 73 taken earlier.
In the second budget in April of last year the Minister cut the allocation for the restoration programme for local and regional roads by €80 million. That was a savage cut. Is it not a fact that in the recent budget the Minister cut his allocation again by €325 million? He is very close to over €425 million or €430 million in cuts in funding for roads which are falling apart throughout the country. Does the Minister believe that is an acceptable amount of money, given the massive problems cause by the recent inclement and disastrous weather which has destroyed many roads in the Minister's constituency and mine, and many others throughout the country?
We have had this political discussion on many occasions. There is a gap of about €25 billion between what we are taking in and what we are spending. Everybody on all sides of the House agreed that cuts had to be made. There is no programme of Government that can be exempt from cuts in the current circumstances. We cannot have it both ways. The Deputies opposite cannot attack the Government because we are spending too much, the gap is too great and the deficit will never be closed while at the same time look for us to continually spend more money on various programmes. We had €411 million this year for the regional and local roads. We will allow maximum flexibility to the local authorities in terms of how they spend that. They will be informed it is to be spent on road repairs. There will be sufficient funding for the repairs outlined in their submissions. However, the local authorities must make that decision and local authority members have to be answerable for it.
What is the exact role given to the National Roads Authority by the Minister for the management of non-national roads? The authority seems to fall between the local authorities and the Minister. The Minister referred to value for money but what does that exactly mean in this case?
(Interruptions).
I remind Members that they must switch off their mobile telephones in the Chamber.
It is in silent mode.
Even in silent mode, a mobile telephone can disrupt. It should be switched off.
Will 2010 be the end of the further development of the inter-urban routes? Will Sligo, Letterkenny, Donegal, Westport and Wexford be allowed go without being part of an inter-urban network?
The Toyota motor corporation has recalled several million of its cars, including the Prius, the official car for the Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
This question is on local roads.
It is related to road safety.
I am sure it is but rather tenuously.
Their official cars are Prius. Some of us are concerned that these Green Ministers might be in danger. Are they safe with their sticky pedals and other problems with the Prius? Will the Minister tell us their whereabouts and if they are driving safely?
That question might possibly not be relevant.
As if we really care about them anyway.
The latest role Deputy Broughan has for me is as a mechanic. There is no end to this man.
The NRA's role is to administer the funding for local authorities for regional and local road networks. This role used to be fulfilled internally in the Department until recently. The same staff will be involved but this time they will be in the NRA. The NRA will also be able to add its expertise to advise me on the best use of the moneys made available to the local authorities.
Will the NRA carry out a performance audit of the local authorities?
Unit costs across the local authorities vary considerably. The NRA will advise me on best practice and we will try to have it applied across all local authorities. It will also administer the schemes. The local authority will send its proposed schemes to the authority and it, in turn, makes recommendations to me, like my departmental officials used to do.
There was never any question of anything other than the five major inter-urban roads. The next priority is the Atlantic corridor which will link the country from Letterkenny to Waterford.
The Minister said that in 2002, some eight years ago.
In the remaining programmes, there will be major works done on several strategic national primary and secondary routes. There will not be any motorway development as it is not necessary from a traffic volume viewpoint. The road building programme will not be finished but the inter-urban motorways will in accordance with the plans I brought to Government in 1998.
What is the status of the Leinster outer orbital route, which the Minister supports?
That is expanding the scope of the question.
I just want an answer on this road project.
I am sure the Deputy does. However, I am not sure if the Minister has the information.
I will give him the information when we come to Question No. 78.
These parliamentary questions were tabled before the Toyota recall.
Deputy Broughan, we cannot have open questions. This is a question on local road networks.
Deputy Broughan thinks he is dealing with the Minister for Toyota.
I want to make this point to the Minister for Transport. I am a Toyota driver. Has the Minister given any consideration to calling in the Irish Toyota franchise, as the American and English authorities did, to ask what game is it playing with the safety of Irish drivers? That is a serious question addressed to the Minister for Transport.
It is a serious question but under Standing Orders we do not have a provision for questions without notice. It is a good idea to put that to the reform committee.
The Leinster outer orbital route is not included in Transport 21 or the national development plan. It will be considered when either plan is renewed.
It would not be up to the Minister for Transport but for consumer affairs and protection bodies to call in Toyota over its recall.
It is never the Minister's responsibility.
The Department fully co-operated with Toyota Ireland in identifying the owners of the various cars it wanted to recall to ensure their safety.
Public Transport.
Deirdre Clune
Ceist:78 Deputy Deirdre Clune asked the Minister for Transport his views on Bus Éireann’s cost-cutting plans; if he has had discussions with Córas Iompair Éireann, CIE, regarding further cuts within the company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6528/10]
Thomas P. Broughan
Ceist:86 Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Transport the 2010 public service obligation allocation for Bus Éireann; the position regarding the recommendations by a company (details supplied) on Bus Éireann; if he has been briefed by Bus Éireann management on plans to axe and reduce service frequency on as many as 100 key Bus Éireann routes and to cut 250 jobs at the company; his views on the impact of these cuts on rural communities and vulnerable persons who rely on local public transport services; if the programme of cutbacks to Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann fleets and services signals the end of the key objective under Transport 21 to increase bus transport capacity by 60%; the way transport capital spending will transfer to enhancing public transport from early 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6407/10]
Arthur Morgan
Ceist:119 Deputy Arthur Morgan asked the Minister for Transport if he has met with Bus Éireann officials regarding the proposed redundancies and route curtailments. [6486/10]
I propose to answer Questions Nos. 78, 86 and 119 together.
I have been briefed on the deterioration in Bus Éireann's financial position due to declining demand, revenue and increased costs, and on the measures necessary to maintain its financial viability. In recent years, Bus Éireann significantly expanded its network of services across the country. However, the economic downturn has seen a marked drop in demand for public transport.
This has resulted in Bus Éireann customer numbers falling by over 10% in 2009, which has impacted negatively on the company's revenues. It means it can no longer afford to operate the same high level of services as it has previously. In response to falling passenger numbers and revenue, Bus Éireann is implementing a wide-ranging cost recovery plan to ensure the financial viability of the company and the maintenance of services to the maximum extent possible.
The cost recovery plan involves cost reduction and efficiency measures, a wage freeze, changes to work practices and to the terms and conditions of employment, a reduction in staff numbers of approximately 250 and changes to services. Overall, Bus Éireann is seeking savings of €12 million in 2010.
It is a matter for Bus Éireann, with the agreement of the National Transport Authority in the case of subvented services, to decide on service levels and changes to services taking account of customer volumes and needs, fare revenue and the funding available for public service obligation services. Bus Éireann is seeking to keep as much of its integrated network of services as possible and to minimise the impact on customers, including its most vulnerable customers, by targeting reductions in frequency of services rather than service withdrawal.
Bus Éireann's cost recovery plan is urgently required so the company can avoid a projected operating deficit in 2010 of up to €27 million. The cost recovery plan being implemented is in line with the recommendation of the Deloitte report on the cost and efficiency review of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. The report acknowledged, in the case of Bus Éireann, that its network design and schedules are efficient and that some service reductions would be required to return the company to financial stability.
Bus Éireann is strongly supported by the Government. The 2010 public service obligation provision for Bus Éireann is approximately €45 million which the company will receive through the National Transport Authority. This provision is an increase of 185% on its 2000 allocation.
Investment in public transport in 2011 and beyond will be decided in the Estimates and budgetary processes, taking account of the review of capital expenditure being finalised by the Department of Finance. However, in the current difficult economic climate Bus Éireann, and the other CIÉ companies, have to take measures to deliver their services more cost effectively and to ensure their continued financial viability. These measures combined with investment in public transport infrastructure and services will provide a basis for a high quality and economically sustainable public transport system envisaged in the smarter travel action plan.
While I welcome that reply, and I acknowledge that Bus Éireann does an excellent job, which the independent audit of its work found and praised the company for, nevertheless, would the Minister agree that there are needs for change within the company? One of the elements Bus Éireann needs to change is where there is only a small number of people, say less than ten, travelling on certain routes, that the company should change the vehicle and opt for smaller vehicles. I acknowledge that Bus Éireann co-operates and works with private contractors specifically, but it should extend and accelerate that process.
At the heart of Bus Éireann, however, is still the issue that it wants to dominate the market and where it basically has a monopoly, it is crucifying commuters. Specifically, I ask the Minister to comment on the fact that Bus Éireann runs buses from Dundalk to Dublin and Dundalk to Belfast, where the distance is 52 km either way but the annual ticket is €1,800 more expensive to go north than to go south for the same distance and the same bus. That is not acceptable. Bus Éireann is abusing a dominant position in the marketplace.
The specifics the Deputy raises are an operational matter for Bus Éireann. There is competition on that route and I am sure if Bus Éireann is not the most——
They are the same price, that is the problem. It is not real competition.
There is a reason they are the same price. However, it is an operational matter for Bus Éireann and I do not want to get involved in the company's day to day operation.
I accept and acknowledge what the Deputy stated about Bus Éireann generally, that the company is an efficient organisation. Bus Éireann has modernised successfully over the past number of years. The passengers are not there anymore for a variety of reasons and the company must cut its cloth to suit its measure. As the Deputy stated, I acknowledge that instead of taking action that may damage the company's network, the approach it has adopted generally of reducing services on particular routes rather than abandoning routes leaves the skeleton there for some time in the future. I acknowledge the role of management and, indeed, unions in reaching an agreement to approach it in that way. That is putting the customer first and it should be acknowledged.
Would the Minister agree again that the Deloitte report on Bus Éireann stated that there was little scope for savings and that the company was largely efficient, after a rigorous examination? The Minister also agreed with me that the subsidy given to Bus Éireann is among the lowest in Europe for a regional public transport company. One can look to a range of jurisdictions, such as the Netherlands, Germany and France, and the 12% or 13% that Bus Éireann gets is among the lowest.
The Minister and his Green Party colleagues — it is shameful of the Green Party in Government — have slashed the national bus service. There is a plethora of such important routes: No. 122, Portumna to Dublin; No. 71, Cork to Athlone; No. 231, Ballyvourney to Cork; and No. 271, Tralee to Cork. There has been a further major cutback on routes such as No. 14, Limerick to Killarney; No. 40, Cork to Tralee; No. 52, Galway to Ballina; the Dungarvan local service; the Navan town service which is the Minister's service; and the Athlone town service. It is a shocking litany of slashing a service.
I repeat I do not agree with the approach of Fine Gael on this matter. The bus licensing Act is there for anybody who wants to put forward proposals to the National Transport Authority, but I do not agree with this constant, ferocious, visceral attack on public transport because that would end up with vast areas of the country having no public transport as private operators cherry-pick.
A question, Deputy.
I received many letters from around the country of people who are so upset by this. In one, from Lifford in Donegal, a constituent writes that she and her daughter with Down's syndrome used the Stranorlar bus every week to get to Raphoe where they got a connecting bus to Letterkenny to meet with speech therapists and other appointments about her daughter's health. She does not drive and now has no access to transport at all.
That is what we have ended up with due to the Minister's action. Do not land this on to the Bus Éireann management. It is the Minister who cut the subsidy in real terms, who slashed the national bus services and who must bear responsibility.
Go raibh maith agat.
Fine Gael is no help to the Minister on this because if that party was in power, we would have no national bus service.
An tAire.
The Minister is responsible. The Minister, Deputy Gormley, and the disgraceful Green Party are equally responsible. They are hypocrites.
Deputy Broughan quoted again the statistics on subsidies. He neglects to mention the capital subsidy that was available for the renewal of the fleet of Bus Éireann over many years which was significantly higher than he would like to acknowledge.
In the world in which we live now with the new EU directive and everything else, a public transport company must operate in a commercial environment. In the current financial situation it will not be easy to maintain services.
Deputy Broughan mentioned a number of services. On the Donegal one, for example, notwithstanding the difficulties he outlined for the individual concerned, the average load on that was less than 11. The average load on the Ballyvourney to Cork service he spoke about was less than nine. The average load on the Portumna service he mentioned was less than three passengers a day. I do not care what kind of a system he wants to put in place, but he cannot expect that a full-scale transport service can be run on these routes at the same frequency for an average of three passengers a day. It is not reasonable.
That is just one example.
I will give details of the rest of them if the Deputy wants.
There are hundreds.
I am just giving him the details. These are the passenger figures.
Deputy Broughan is not doing a service to Bus Éireann or its employees if he will tell them that the company must run buses on these kind of routes and, perhaps, not be able to run a bus where there is some kind of a reasonable demand for it.
As I was pointing out earlier, the company need not run the standard-sized bus. It can use smaller transport. It can use private companies.
Which it does.
That is where the thinking must go.
The other point is that perhaps we should be looking afresh at where people live in remote areas. If An Post has its collection path for mail from many disparate and small local communities, why is the An Post vehicle not licensed to carry passengers as well? That would make a deal of sense and there would be a fixed definite timetable at least twice a day on which people could travel.
In fairness, Bus Éireann, as Deputy O'Dowd acknowledge earlier, uses private companies. It has been much better at using private companies and sub-contracting. I agree with the Deputy that the company should do more, either through sub-contracting or through the company's own system, to use smaller buses and vehicles.
On Deputy O'Dowd's point about An Post, he will be aware that the Department has put in place a number of rural transport pilot schemes where Bus Éireann is involved. I take up the point he made on An Post's end of that because we have been mainly focussed on the HSE and health services. It is something I will raise in the context of that review of rural transport.
The Minister read out the reports of the number of passengers on different routes. Did he know about the 100 routes before Bus Éireann put any proposals to its workforce and did he make any recommendations to Bus Éireann as to how it should try to maintain a national bus network?
I was aware in general terms that Bus Éireann was putting a plan, which would involve a lessening of services on particular routes, before the specifics were put to the union. I was not aware of the specifics until it came into the public domain. I understand it was put in the public domain by somebody from the union side when the document was put to the union as part of the negotiations.
Transport 21.
Ruairí Quinn
Ceist:79 Deputy Ruairí Quinn asked the Minister for Transport if he will report on the recent release through a freedom of information request of costings for major public transport projects, including the Railway Procurement Agency’s light rail investment strategy 2004-14; the position regarding this strategy with 13 new Luas lines for Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6412/10]
As I have said on numerous previous occasions in this House, my policy in regard to the release of cost information on the transport projects contained in Transport 21 is in the first instance to ensure the taxpayer's interest is protected.
In that context, the release or publication of commercially sensitive cost information prior to the completion of the competitive procurement processes would seriously prejudice the State's capacity to derive maximum value for money in respect of such projects. However, I am also conscious that it is in the taxpayer's interest to strike an appropriate balance between ensuring value for money and transparency in the use of taxpayers' money for transport projects.
My Department has, therefore, published cost information on completed projects and projects at a sufficiently advanced stage, where such information is no longer commercially sensitive. It has also released documents under freedom of information as referred to by the Deputy.
The RPA light rail investment strategy of 2005, referred to by the Deputy, was part of the detailed preparatory work which contributed to the final Transport 21 programme announced in November of that year. All the transport agencies and many local authorities and Departments contributed to that exercise.
Under Transport 21, one light rail project was recently completed in the docklands and two more are under construction. The line to Cherrywood in south Dublin will open for service later this year and services will start on the extension to CityWest next year. Good progress has also been made in progressing planning on projects such as metro north, metro west and the city centre Luas line. However, it must be acknowledged that it will not be possible to deliver on the original ambitious targets contained in Transport 21 in the timescale envisaged given the current difficult economic environment.
Metro north and DART underground are core projects in the strategy envisioned under Transport 21 and continue to be key projects in the revised funding environment.
Many people were glad to see the beginning of the outline tendering process for DART underground starting today. Has the 2004-14 light rail investment strategy been totally shelved by the Government? While I accept the point the Minister made about commercial costings, could there not be a general report to the Dáil on indicative costings in regard to major transport projects?
In regard to Luas, what is happening to line D and Broadstone? At what stage is that? At what stage is the Lucan Luas, a major project the Railway Procurement Agency is progressing?
The Minister referred to DART underground and metro north. What is the current status of the two final bids for metro from the Celtic Metro Group and Metro Express? I do not expect the Minister to give me costings or prices but a general timeframe. When will we know whether the Celtic Metro Group or Metro Express has won the contract?
We have been getting ready for the big dig at College Green. Has the Minister had any meetings recently with the Dublin city manager, John Tierney, and the other stakeholders in order to progress this?
In regard to all the projects in Transport 21 which have started their processes, I have indicated on a number of occasions that I will bring them from planning and design to tender stage. As I outlined previously, all of them are continuing along that path. We will then make decisions in regard to provision of the money. Obviously, metro and the DART interconnector will take up a huge amount of the public transport budget over the next number of years given the current financial circumstances.
It was announced some time ago that line D will be post the work on the metro, although some of the work involved in that will be included when the metro work is being done.
On the procedure for the tenders, a railway order must be obtained for metro in order that people know the final routes and the costings and so on can be finalised. We will know which of the two tenderers were successful for some months after that.
I stand corrected but I believe the last meeting I had on arrangements for the big dig, as the Deputy referred to it, was approximately one week or ten days before Christmas.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.