The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, needs to show political courage and immediately appoint an independent regulator to liberalise the bus market, the private bus firm Metroline said yesterday.

In a strongly worded speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Mr Declan O'Farrell, chief exeuctive of the company, said unions were "dictating" public transport policy. He said the Department of Transport had been talking about liberalising the market for a long time and ongoing uncertainty was unhelpful.

"It would appear to be the unions that are currently dictating public transport policy," he said.

He said the benefits of competition in aviation and telecommunications were very obvious. "Liberalisation has made both Aer Lingus and Eircom better and stronger companies than when they were protected state monopolies," he said.

"The introduction of a competitive process in public transport does not mean job losses or poor pay conditions. Vested interests are trying to halt progress in the public transport sector so political courage is needed to do what is in the best interests of the consumers," he said.

Metroline operate several services in the Republic including the Aerdart service between Dublin Airport and the DART. It also operates the Citylink service between Galway and Dublin Airport. Earlier this month it began a new service between Galway and Shannon Airport.

The issue of opening up the bus market continues to be contentious, with CIÉ unions threatening to hold a "no fares" day in protest.

However, Mr O'Farrell said the consumer was being ignored.

"A promise of free fare days and one-day strikes is not what the public wants. Consumers want an efficient value for money integrated public transport service and that is what competition will provide," he said.

He said trends in the London contradicted what the unions were saying. He said passenger numbers there had grown by 14 per cent a year since since competition arrived.