Minister for Transport Martin Cullen is likely to put proposals for the regulation of the Dublin bus market to Cabinet the week after next amid continuing tensions between Fianna Fáil and PD Ministers on the issue.
Mr Cullen's proposals are expected to include giving the new Dublin Transportation Authority power to regulate the bus market. Differences between the coalition parties centre on the extent of the powers to be given to the authority.
PD sources said yesterday that the key issue for them was that the regulator should be allowed demand performance standards from bus companies, including Dublin Bus, and to remove routes from one operator and give them to another.
The PDs believe that over time this would allow private bus operators to operate routes which are currently run by Dublin Bus.
There appears to be agreement that private companies can operate some routes. However, the PDs want the regulator to be able to give existing routes to private companies. Unions want to ring-fence existing routes from privatisation and allow the private companies to only run some new routes. It is not known what position Mr Cullen's proposals take on this key issue.
PD sources said yesterday that they were "not hung up" on the idea that 25 per cent of Dublin bus routes should be privatised, as the previous minister for Transport Séamus Brennan had proposed.
However they were insisting that not only new routes but existing ones be open for privatisation should the new regulator consider this appropriate.
A national work stoppage by bus drivers that had been scheduled to begin at 7pm on Thursday was averted only after Mr Cullen told unions that he would bring proposals to Cabinet in the coming weeks to provide 100 additional buses for Dublin Bus and 160 for Bus Éireann at a cost of over €70 million to the State.
The PDs remain opposed to any such investment until a major bus reform package has been agreed, including the introduction of a regulator with powers to allocate routes to private operators.
The Taoiseach confirmed yesterday that Mr Cullen's package of proposals was ready.
While saying that the Dublin Transportation Authority and a "modern regulatory system" were needed, Mr Ahern did not indicate his position on the issue at the centre of the tensions between the coalition partners.
"Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann require extra buses," he told reporters in Dublin yesterday. "Dublin Bus require 100, Bus Éireann require 160. The Minister has provided the resources for that on top of what he has already done."
He said he believed Mr Cullen had completed his proposals just before the summer holidays.
This followed discussions with unions over a long period on "the issue of the Dublin Transportation Authority and the issue of a modern regulatory system including licences and procedures and enforcement in the Dublin Bus market".
These proposals would now be brought to Cabinet. "There are no difficulties in this. It is an issue of having the public provided with the best services, both from Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann and from the private bus market."