Bus policy will benefit taxpayer and consumer
The Government has committed to further investment in buses, linked to reform of the market in the interest of the taxpayer and the consumer.
Does Sinn Féin support continued funding of an inefficient Dublin Bus that won’t tell the taxpayer what it has done with money already received, with services making a loss despite massive subsidy and a monopoly position, and which has lost millions of passengers? Mr Crowe asks me to examine the facts, and recognise the British experience of franchising has been a ‘disaster’. I agree with Mr Crowe — that is why we reject any notion of introducing that system here. Sinn Féin, to quote Mr Crowe, “would do well to examine the evidence”.
The introduction of competition in London was a success. Rather than going glassy-eyed over Brussels, Helsinki or Vienna, Mr Crowe might consider our own magnificent Dublin, where Connex won a tender competition to provide the LUAS service. Why not do the same with bus routes? After all, we hear little complaint about (or industrial threat) from the LUAS operator.
Contrary to his claim that the PDs are “preventing the supply of badly needed buses to Dubliners in order to experiment with a failed transport model”, my party is facilitating the supply of buses to Dubliners at no cost to the taxpayer.
Saving taxpayers money and ensuring a better service is described by Mr Crowe as “neo-liberal whimsy”. I would say it is a duty of office.
In conclusion, on the matter of failed ideology and the suffering of ordinary people, there are a few thousand victims’ families who would have a word or two for Sinn Féin. But then, Sinn Féin has never let the hard facts halt a failed campaign.
Senator Tom Morrissey
Progressive Democrats
Transport Spokesperson
Leinster House
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
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