"I don't have any ideological hang up about whether we've got a public or private system. Let it all be Bus Eireann or Dublin Bus or a mixture of public and private."

"The one thing that I do want is a system that works well, that's efficient, that's safe and that gives value for money, " he said. "I don't think the current system works in that way."

His comments have been welcomed by the managing director of Dublin coach operator Aircoach, Allen Parker, who revealed that the company's owners, Britain's FirstGroup, were particularly keen to get into the Dublin bus market.

"We do want to enter and it's frustrating that we can't at the moment because we feel we have a significant role to play in the market, " he said.

Parker said, however, that it was important that whatever measures the minister introduced avoided the "free for all" seen in Britain, where large numbers of rival buses had clogged up the roads of some towns.

"There should be an independent regulator, similar to the London model, and there should be competition in tendering, not on the roads. You should tender for a group of routes so there's not a free for all on the streets."

Ireland's current bus licencing legislation dates back to 1932. "It's obviously outdated, it's ineffective, there's no appeal system and it even hampers Dublin Bus from being responsive and entering new areas because if there's a private bus licence application there, they have to wait until that application is finished, " said Dempsey.