Privatisation of Bus Routes By McCarthy Must Not Be Allowed
Issued : Sunday 24 April, 2011
Councillor Henry Upton has expressed significant reservations concerning the McCarthy Report and its recommendations to effectively privatise Dublin Bus and CIE.
Commenting on the proposals published last week, Cllr. Upton said “Recommendations in the McCarthy Report on State assets to privatise Dublin Bus will cause chaos and are condemned to failure."
“Dublin Bus provides a service for all the communities of the city, not-for-profit, but for the good of the people. Any privatisation of bus routes will inevitably lead to private operators "cherry picking" high volume routes such as the 46a, whilst neglecting smaller local communities."
"Residents across Dublin South Central have contacted me and have serious concerns about losing their bus services. People in Inchicore, Ballyfermot, Crumlin and Terenure are worried about losing their local services. It is older people and the less mobile who will suffer most from cutbacks in services. Services such as the 19, the 121 and the 54a are already under threat." said Cllr Henry Upton
“I believe that providing an adequate public transportation service is a necessity of any State. Many of our senior citizens or the 450,000 people who are seeking employment cannot afford a private car or the sky high price of fuel. Private operators by their nature will seek to maximise their profits which will mean cherry picking popular routes and the gradual decline of other routes, effectively condemning less mobile citizens to their homes. Additionally, any reduction in public transport would be a retrograde step in terms of our commitments on climate change and carbon emissions.”
"Henry Upton concluded "Any policies which seek to privatise essential public services will by their nature hit the less well off hardest. I believe that it is the policy of the new government to prioritise public transport but such a move would be a seriously retrograde step and should not be countenanced."
Cllr 
