Private bus operators in Dublin licensed by the Government would not be competing directly with any existing Dublin Bus services, the Department of Public Enterprise said yesterday.
Mr Joe Jacob, Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise, who earlier this week licensed two new private operators, said future licences would be "considered for routes which are not directly served by CIE companies".
He was responding to Thursday's strong criticism from SIPTU's Dublin Bus branch committee which said the decision to license the new services meant Dublin Bus and its employees were being "fed to the wolves".
Mr Jacob said the Government was fully committed to giving Dublin Bus the "necessary resources to provide an effective public transport service". He said this had been demonstrated this year when Dublin Bus was given Exchequer funding to purchase 150 new buses.