Minister shelves plan to privatise bus routes in Dublin

Plans to introduce competition to the bus market in Dublin to improve services for the travelling public have been shelved by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.

Reversing what had been the policy of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat government for at least eight years, Mr Dempsey has decided not to privatise bus routes in Dublin, in a move that has been welcomed by transport unions.

Proposals to introduce competition to end Dublin Bus's monopoly in the city were published by the PDs in 1999, at the same time that they proposed the deregulation of the taxi market. The proposals were put forward as PD rather than government policy.

However, the following year the then minister for public enterprise Mary O'Rourke said she favoured competition in the Dublin bus market.

In 2002 the then minister for transport Séamus Brennan published proposals to privatise up to 25 per cent of bus services in Dublin from January 2004. Industrial action by the National Bus and Rail Union and Siptu followed in the shape of half-day stoppages and a "free fare day", during which drivers refused to collect fares.

Following the cabinet reshuffle in September 2004 the new transport minister Martin Cullen resumed talks with Dublin Bus and unions and in 2005 proposed the privatisation of just 15 per cent of the market.

These proposals were published in 2006 and were linked to the delivery of 100 extra buses to Dublin Bus, with another 100 to be provided by the private sector.

However, the privatisation plans never materialised. Private operators were given licences to run some specialised services in Dublin, such as the Swords Express, which uses the Dublin Port Tunnel to access the city centre, but these account for a tiny proportion of the market.

Mr Dempsey has said he believes that the current public transport operators offer the best prospect of improving the service.

"The priority is to get the maximum efficiency out of the public transport operators," a spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said, "but if he doesn't get the response he wants he can revisit the issue of private operators".

Siptu yesterday welcomed the move, which it said showed that the stranglehold the PDs had on the improvement of the Dublin Bus fleet was at an end.

"Privatisation hasn't worked in other cities and we have always maintained that it would be a mistake to introduce it here. The PDs' hold on transport had prevented the release of 200 buses to Dublin Bus - that block will hopefully be removed now," a spokesman said.

PD senator Fiona O'Malley said yesterday she was disappointed by Mr Dempsey's decision. "The small number of private operators who are already on different routes have enhanced the service. I am disappointed by the decision and we will have to see what it will mean for the public transport user."

The move away from competition could be part of a trade-off with Dublin Bus to ensure that it does not block the establishment of the Dublin Transportation Authority, she said.

A spokeswoman for Dublin Bus said yesterday that the question of privatisation was a matter of Government policy and that the company "would not comment publicly on that".