Sir, – I read with utter dismay your report on Grant Thornton's recommendation to Bus Éireann to close our Expressway intercity bus services ("Bus Éireann may be forced to close Expressway, report suggests", January 11th).
It is blindingly obvious that no consideration was given to the proposition that we need a readily accessible, affordable transport system that maximises the mobility of citizens across the State. Such a system operates best on a cross-subsidisation basis, with heavily used routes supporting less busy ones, thus ensuring a service where that is not self-financing.
We know from elsewhere that privatising such services sees radical cutting of routes, as profit is the only objective. Perhaps Grant Thornton might have gone even further and proposed that the entire population be relocated to our five cities and be done with it.
One has to wonder is it time that someone somewhere questioned the ideology that fills the ether in and around Grant Thornton and insists that in future an appropriate health warning be attached to all their recommendations on matters to do with the welfare and running of our communities? – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Sligo.