Bus routes to be opened to competition known within days

The Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann routes which will be opened up to competition within three years are to be revealed in the coming days.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) is due to publish its "notice of intention" to tender for certain routes by early next week.

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar told the Fine Gael parliamentary party of the move, and there was concern that making the announcement in advance of the Labour Party conference this weekend could upset the junior Coalition partner.

However, the Government has already agreed that some routes must be opened up to competition to comply with EU directives and the NTA has said it will allow private bus operators to compete for 10 per cent of the market.

“Both parties in Government are behind this,” a Coalition source said. “But we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have to because of the directives.”

Once the NTA notice is published, the routes it wants open to competition will be revealed. Contracts will not be awarded until 2015, with the private companies possibly operating the routes at the end of 2016.