Bus Éireann's decision to axe almost 100 routes on its Expressway service represents a major setback for citizens in rural Ireland. A total of 15 communities are now to be left without any direct bus services whatsoever while dozens more will experience drastic cuts to vital bus links. If the cuts go ahead on the major routes affected, namely, Dublin to Cork via Kilkenny, Dublin to Waterford via Wexford and Athlone to Westport, the current 198 services a day will fall to 105. I am sure the Taoiseach accepts that this is a direct result of years of underfunding of public transport by his predecessor, but where Fianna Fáil led, the Taoiseach is now following. The Government has privatised 10% of Bus Éireann routes. The Government is making it harder and harder for the company to provide vital links which are economically and socially essential to rural communities. Bus Éireann has said very clearly that the routes need Government funding in order to survive. Farming and rural communities have condemned the latest cuts as a further attack on rural Ireland. Considering the vital social and economic benefit of linking those communities to major public transport routes, will the Government and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Teachta Paschal Donohoe, review the latest drastic decision by Bus Éireann as a matter of urgency and take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the continuation of those vital bus services?

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is very well aware of the situation. He allocated another €100 million to CIE just before Christmas. Deputy Adams will be aware that the National Transport Authority, NTA, has a fundamentally important role to play in assisting-----

A total of €4 billion has been allocated to rural Ireland.

-----the response to changes in services that have an impact on rural areas. It is also important to note that the public service obligation, PSO, funding for transport is €210 million per annum and it is important that is allocated for the socially necessary services, in particular in rural areas. The Minister and the Department will continue to work with the NTA on the wider issues concerning rural transport across the country.

Bus Éireann operates three kinds of service - provincial city services, rural stage carriage services and intercity services. Bus Éireann will get a public service obligation of €31.9 million in 2015 under contract with the National Transport Authority for the provincial city and rural carriage services. Bus Éireann receives no State funding for the commercial Expressway intercity services and it must also fund the purchase of buses for Expressway services from within its own resources. As the Deputy is aware, the Expressway services are commercial services operated in competition with private operators on the main trunk routes and motorways. They are licensed by the National Transport Authority. By their very nature, commercial services cannot and do not receive any public service obligation funding from the Exchequer. All of the commercial operators will only provide services where it is commercially advantageous for them to do so. Given the traffic on the main routes between cities, from a commercial perspective, if a bus leaves the motorway to go through the countryside, that will have an impact on the commercial decision that is made in the first place.

We built the motorways. It is our fault.

Deputy Cowen should please not interrupt.

I do not know whether Deputy Adams was at the meeting in Castlecomer last night.

This is Deputy Adams's question.

Bus Éireann has agreed to postpone the changes to route 7 services until the summer. The NTA is now examining what might be the appropriate PSO service to put in place if funding were to be made available for that. It is working with Bus Éireann in that context. The NTA has also been contacted regarding changes on the Expressway route 5 service from Waterford. In view of those changes, Bus Éireann plans to extend route 4, which is the Dublin to Waterford route, to New Ross in order to maintain a link between New Ross and Waterford.

The Government is cutting off rural Ireland completely.

Separately from that, the NTA, in conjunction with Bus Éireann, is examining options-----

One would not think the Taoiseach was from Mayo.

We want to hear the reply.

-----to reconfigure a number of subvented services that already apply that are necessary from a social point of view. Bus Éireann has no immediate plans to consider the withdrawal of the Athlone to Westport service but it did refer to it as an example of the commercial challenges which face any company from private enterprise in operating such a service in a very competitive bus market.

I call Deputy Adams.

This is the most anti-rural Government ever.

Deputy Healy-Rae is not Deputy Adams.

No, I am not. I shave.

Deputy Adams is quite capable of handling the situation himself.

He is. I know that.

I am just trying to decipher what the Taoiseach said to me.

They were facts.

It was a blizzard of detail. Will the Government continue with the services or not? The Taoiseach outlined that the Expressway service is a commercial service and then he went on to say that Bus Éireann will only provide services where it is commercially advantageous for it to do so. That is a significant argument for public services if the Taoiseach does not mind me saying so. At his party's conference at the weekend the Taoiseach promised €4 billion to rural Ireland and now he is going to cut 180 services a day to 105 services. Let me repeat what I have said many times to the Taoiseach: citizens have rights. That includes the right to public services no matter where they live. The Government has been a disaster for rural Ireland. Services are being cut such as rural schools, Garda stations, health services and post offices. When one goes off the main road, one is on pot-holed boreens. Small and medium businesses are starved of credit. The main streets of many villages and towns are dying on their feet because they are neglected by the Government. Some communities will be left without GPs. The Taoiseach is a rural Deputy, yet the Government has consistently made living in rural Ireland more difficult. Coming from Mayo, he obviously knows the effects on rural communities of the scattering of half a million young people in the past eight years. The Government has also cut transport services, including that provided by Iarnród Éireann, and it has increased costs for private car users. Bus Éireann is an essential part of the public transport network. It does provide a good, quality service to a large number of towns and villages which would otherwise be isolated.

Could Deputy Adams please put his question?

Tá mé críochnaithe anois, a Cheann Comhairle. The private model he has outlined does not work in the interests of rural communities. The outworking of the Government's policy will mean a less efficient, less reliable service. It will mean reduced wages and conditions for employees, an increase in fares and no pension arrangements for workers. I again ask the Taoiseach and his Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to review the Government's plans and to outline to the Dáil adequate funding for Bus Éireann and for the connectivity, social cohesion and an end to isolation of small communities which need to be provided with vital public transport links.

Deputy Adams obviously did not listen to what I said.

I could not understand it.

I will say it again for Deputy Adams. I will say it very slowly so that he will be able to get the complete picture.

He would prefer to speak in Irish.

Bus Éireann operates three types of services - one, two, three-----

Yes, I know.

A haon, a dó, a trí.

The Taoiseach should give up the condescension.

The first one is provincial city services. That means from city to city. Generally, they go along the motorways and the main routes.

I asked the Taoiseach about cuts.

That is a commercial operation and no public service obligation funding is provided for it. CIE-Bus Éireann must buy their own buses from their own resources and they are not subvented in any way. I hope that is clear. In some of these cases, where the existing buses go off the motorway and service rural areas and then go back onto the main routes, it is not commercially advantageous when one is competing against private enterprise that does not do that.

That is why we need public services.

Yes, and that is why, under the rural development programme, which was negotiated by Ireland during our Presidency, there is a €4 billion fund between 2014 and 2020, part of which includes a very extensive rural transport service for the entire country where small bus operators bring elderly people to various towns, villages and other locations on a regular and daily basis. Deputy Adams is well aware of that.

The position is there was a meeting in Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, last night. As a result of that meeting, Bus Éireann has said it will continue with route 7 facilities until this matter is looked at during the summer.

June.

It is working with the National Transport Authority and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport-----

When is the by-election?

-----to see how best a number of routes currently subvented might be changed to provide the sort of service we are talking about.

In other words, ended.

It has also said in view of the changes and the change in respect of route 5 from Waterford, it will extend the Dublin to Waterford route 4 to New Ross in order that the service can continue.

The Deputy is deliberately mixing it up in that he wants the mainline buses, which are not subvented and not the subject of any PSO, to drive all over the boreens of the country.

I want the Taoiseach to serve the people, one, two, three, citizens' rights.

There is a rural transport scheme which is funded to a great extent. The Minister has said subvention is more than €200 million and, just before Christmas, a further €101 million was allocated to CIE. It is in the business of buying new buses for its fleet to continue the very good service Bus Éireann has always given. The changes being made are the subject of work between the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the NTA and Bus Éireann. I hope out of this the situation can continue and services can be provided to people. Change is necessary and we will not have mainline buses leaving the main routes from city to city and driving throughout the countryside. There is an opportunity for a different kind of service to be supplied that would meet the demands of people throughout the land.

Private services.