;IE monopoly threatened
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.LANDS independent bus operators' trade association is eatening to invoke EEC legislation if Cores lompair Eireann's ir monopoly of bus services is not broken.
tichard O'Byrne, the manageint consultant director of mbo, the independent orators' association, claimed t week that private operators ild provide a cheaper and )re efficient service if they re allowed to compete with -le said his members wanted compete with CIE in Dublin, d claimed: "It is ridiculous ving empty double-deckers on the streets during off peak hours. We would be in a position to lay on single-deckers or even minibuses.
"This would mean a considerable reduction in the number of CIE buses and also mean that taxpayers would also need to lay out less money," he added.
Mr O'Byrne, who claimed that Britain's 1980 Transport Act had boosted overall demand for public transport, said it was wrong to say that independents ignored unprofitable routes.
He said that CIE could be in breach of EEC legislation on restrictive practices, and if there is no commitment to break its monopoly then Pambo would go to the European Court.
Mr O'Byrne's claims were aired after CIE's bus planning manager, Donal Mangan, told Chartered Institute of Transport members that large-scale privatisation of bus services would lead to a reduction in the quality and quantity of services.
Mr Mangan predicted that a network of socially necessary services in rural areas would be threatened by privatisation.
This debate has arisen while the future of CIE's bus service has been threatened by two swords of Damocles. The much postponed implementation of the McKinsey Report (CM, February 14, 1981), recommending the creation of separate bus companies to manage the provincial and Dublin services, has still to have a date put upon it.
And in the immediate future, severe options being considered for cost cutting at CIE (CM, February 5) call for cuts in urban services and for the withdrawal of substantial groups of rural routes, including those radiating from Monaghan.