Minister: Expect bus fare hikes soon

BUS passengers can expect fare hikes in the near future because of a double blow to the industry from rising fuel prices and the loss of a valuable fuel rebate.

Private operators providing school bus services on contract to Bus Éireann would also “feel the pinch”, Junior Minister at the Department of Transport Noel Ahern warned.

Mr Ahern said there was no good news ahead for the transport sector or its customers. Air travel, the marine sector, hauliers, private motorists and public transport users all had to face the reality that while fuel prices had eased, they were not going to come down in the long run.

Mr Ahern warned bus operators, in both the private and public sector, would be particularly hard hit because of the scrapping of their fuel rebate on November 1. The rebate, which is worth 30 cent for every litre of fuel, is being withdrawn in response to the EU energy tax directive. “We can expect to see the price of transport services continue to rise over the coming months and particularly in the bus sector,” he told the Oireachtas Transport Committee.

He said he had met with representatives of the tourist coach operators to discuss the difficulties. “They have more or less said they will have no alternative but to put up prices.”

Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd questioned if withdrawing the rebate was a necessary response to the EU directive given that Britain was trying to find another way of complying with the directive while maintaining the rebate. Mr Ahern said the matter had already been legislated for in the last Finance Act so it would be implemented and he ruled out intervening in other ways to ease the costs on bus operators or the rest of the transport industry.

“Such measures would not be in the interests of either the consumer or the transport sector as it would only serve to postpone and make for difficult the choices we will all have to make in choosing how we use and develop our transport systems in the future,” he said.

Mr O’Dowd rejected the minister’s responses. “You seem to accept that as a minister and a Government that there is nothing you can actually do,” he said.

Fine Gael Senator Frank Feighan said school transport charges had already increased this year, in some cases by up to 70%, and he asked what would happen if private bus operators providing school transport found they could not break even after the rebate loss.

Mr Ahern said that was a matter for them to discuss with Bus Éireann and the Minister for Education. “I don’t know whether their contract allows them to look for more [money] if they have a legitimate case, but there is no doubt that from November 1 the cost of fuel is going to be much dearer... Whoever has to pay for that — the bus operators or otherwise — I don’t know.”