Mr. Aidan Murphy:

I thank the chairman and members of the committee for the opportunity to address them today. I was appointed chairperson of Bus Éireann in July 2014, having joined the board in April 2013. It has been a great privilege and, subject to the endorsement of this committee, I am honoured to accept the appointment by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to serve one additional year.

The business of Bus Éireann, given our national reach and range of services, is unparalleled by any transport company in Ireland. More than 2,700 people help to deliver Bus Éireann services across our school transport, commercial Expressway and public service obligation, PSO, routes, supported by thousands of people indirectly employed as contractors and suppliers.

Just before the Covid-19 pandemic, we were proud that, following very challenging times for the company in 2016 and 2017, Bus Éireann had achieved its highest passenger growth in more than a decade to almost 90 million passenger trips. In 2019, the company returned a modest profit and the benefits of this renewed growth and momentum had begun to reverberate among our customers, employees and stakeholders across the country with investment in new services, new vehicles, new facilities and new jobs.

Of course, 2020 was a year like no other. In the most difficult of circumstances Bus Éireann successfully delivered safe, essential services when these services were needed most. The company’s response to Covid-19 has exemplified its service ethos and commitment and the values in which we take pride – safety, collaboration, customer first, performance and forward thinking.

Public transport was one of the sectors most affected by Covid-19. While services continued, as essential to the functioning of society and particularly for front-line workers in healthcare, retail and food, usage patterns changed dramatically and suddenly. Revenues collapsed by more than 90% in a week and have oscillated between 50% and 90% below normal for the past 13 months.

Bus Éireann collaborated extensively with key stakeholders - the trade unions, the National Transport Authority, the Departments of Transport and Education and CIÉ - to act immediately on the advice issued by the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, to swiftly implement the recommended safety measures to ensure we could maintain services for essential journeys.

The decision by our board to steadfastly support the call by Government to maintain services for essential journeys depleted the net asset position of the company and created financial pressure, but it was the right thing to do for both our customers and employees and the right decision as a national State company during our nation’s critical time of need.

I am particularly grateful to all our staff who collaborated effectively to keep our customers and each other safe during this crisis. Despite the exceptional Covid-19 safety performance of public transport in Ireland, customer confidence will take some time to recover. I am certain that with the vaccination programme gaining pace and the determination and resilience to continue investment in public transport service and innovation, a full recovery can be achieved within the next two years.

As a commercial semi-State company, our goal and remit is to also deliver sustainable earnings on a consistent basis. We are delighted to have introduced the single most significant enhancement of PSO services as part of a fiscal stimulus announced by the Government. New services were introduced to Dundalk, Drogheda, Navan, Ballina, Limerick and Cork with the support of funding from the NTA. These new services are important facilitators of economic and social recovery and regeneration.

We had to take decisive action in relation to certain costs, unfunded activity and unsustainable routes to ensure we could continue to deliver services for both our customers and stakeholders over the longer term. The board took the necessary and prudent decisions to safeguard the company throughout this crisis, including the difficult decision to withdraw from four Expressway routes. This decision was taken to avoid unsustainable future losses and protect services for the remaining 150 communities that rely on other Expressway services throughout the network.

Extreme revenue loss had a catastrophic impact on our balance sheet, requiring emergency funding and support. That support came through extensive dialogue with our stakeholders, including the Department of Transport. Our holding company, CIÉ, provided essential liquidity support. Through the NTA, we accessed funding to address the revenue deficit for both our PSO services and Expressway services, the latter by way of a temporary support made available to all commercial bus operators.

The commercial support enabled the recovery of costs of service provision from when it took effect in August 2020, which has allowed us to continue providing services on the vast majority of our Expressway routes. Funding agreed by the Department of Education to protect school transport contractors when schools were forced to close between March and June also ensured the school transport scheme continued to be delivered as schools reopened. We will seek to strengthen the balance sheet in 2021 through recapitalisation to ensure the business is more strongly positioned for defence and growth in the future. The strength of our collaboration and partnerships with all stakeholders has helped us deliver on wider social and economic objectives, keeping communities connected, and the focus now is ensuring our business remains sustainable as we look to the future.

Safety remains our chief priority and the board and executive are committed to delivering the safest transport system possible. In 2020, in addition to implementing all the Covid-19 measures required to adhere to public health advice, we delivered significant improvements on all safety metrics for collisions, passenger and employee accidents.

As a board, we recognise that the shift towards greener production and consumption cannot be delayed until economies are revived. The national development plan and climate action plan published by the Government set out ambitious projects and targets and, in 2020, Bus Éireann began to catalyse a transformation that amalgamates investment in the green and inclusive economic recovery. We have adopted a new sustainability strategy and this month sees the inaugural meeting of a board sustainability committee. We look forward to building and delivering on that longer-term plan, decarbonising our public transport services and delivering an improved environmental impact performance, recognising that, as a public body, the target is an absolute CO2 reduction of 50% by 2030. The delivery of our fleet and depot capital plan and implementation of our new energy and waste management policies are critical to Bus Éireann achieving the CAP targets.

It is imperative for the board to develop strategies and plans that ensure Bus Éireann is equipped to compete effectively with bus market opening, tendering of routes and competitive pressure on inter-regional routes. Bus transport is the fastest and most flexible solution to improving public transport usage, maximising the value of State and EU investment in road network and infrastructure. We have delivered increases of up to 70% in passenger numbers within a short time of investment in increasing frequency of buses and new routes, which demonstrates that demand is not in question. BusConnects projects for Ireland’s regional cities and greater focus on the public transport needs of rural communities herald another exciting period for the sector.

I thank my fellow directors for their outstanding commitment and resolve to address every challenge presented by this pandemic, and throughout my term as chairperson. Primarily, I thank the Minister, the Departments, the NTA and CIÉ for their continued and steadfast support of Bus Éireann, as well as elected representatives, local authorities and our customers as we join together to build back better.