Mr. Billy Hann:

Thank you, Chairman, for the invitation to appear before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. I look forward to today’s engagement. I am joined by Ms Andrea Keane, chief financial officer and company secretary and Mr. Ciarán Rogan, chief customer officer. I thank the members of the committee for their engagement in recent weeks. I know both Ms Keane and Mr. Rogan have ensured all queries from the last committee meeting have been fully responded to and I hope this shows how seriously we are taking recent challenges. I assure the committee that Dublin Bus has been working, and is continuing to work, to deliver improved service levels for all customers.

Today is my 13th day as chief executive of Dublin Bus. The performance and reliability of services has been my main focus during this time. I have visited depots, met employees and seen first-hand the skill and dedication they bring to their roles. I look forward to welcoming the committee to the Broadstone depot in the new year. Companies like Dublin Bus need both a programme of work and a purpose. We are fortunate, despite a highly changeable operating environment, that our purpose is clear. We exist to provide safe, high-quality, sustainable public transport services to the people of the greater Dublin area. The journey to school, work or to see a loved one all matter to us. We are facing challenges, which I will address today, but it is important to acknowledge that the story of Dublin Bus is a largely a successful one.

The company has seen customer demand return strongly with customer numbers expected to reach 122 million by the end of 2022. Customer demand is now exceeding pre-Covid years. We are currently carrying, on average, 460,000 people per day from Monday to Friday. Dublin Bus, with ten 24-hour routes introduced over the last two years, is the only all-day and all-night operator of public transport services in the country. Free WiFi, USB charging points, audio announcements and a 100% fully accessible fleet are now standard. We are here, however, because our services have on occasion fallen below our own high standards.

My opening statement will focus on the issues raised at the last committee hearing, namely, service performance and reliability, driver recruitment and RTPI reliability. In doing this, I will focus on the measures taken since the last committee hearing and update members on the very significant programme of work under way to return services to the standard the people of the greater Dublin area expect. There has been a very significant focus in recent months on the performance of public transport and some strong criticism of recent service delivery by Dublin Bus and other public transport operators. At all times, our focus is on providing customers with safe, comfortable and efficient journeys and putting the customer at the centre of everything we do. They inform all of our work.

We operate 7,000 trips a day with more than 460,000 people using our services on the average weekday.

This is greater than the combined population of the cities of Cork, Limerick and Galway. The committee will see that the vast majority of our services operate on time and on schedule. Through these services Dublin Bus provides critical support to the social and economic life of the city.

The recent pace of network expansion, however, has placed significant pressure on the company as we seek to deliver additional services and also provide our network of contracted services. We are actively managing the current challenges through a combination of measures: additional overtime working where possible within strict driver hour regulations; adjustment to service provision in order to have the least adverse impact on customers; strong focus on improved customer information services; an extensive recruitment campaign; and the resolution of technical challenges facing the real-time passenger information, RTPI, systems. There is no doubt that we have found this challenging, and I apologise to any customers who have had a poor customer experience when using our services in recent months. I am confident that improvements seen in recent weeks can be maintained as we build towards 2023. We must also recognise that there are challenges beyond our control which we must navigate in an economy operating at practically full employment.

Dublin Bus is currently running the biggest recruitment drive in the history of the organisation. It is a campaign that has seen 319 drivers recruited since January 2022, with 39 added since our last appearance before this committee, but we are not standing still. We know we need to exhaust every possible recruitment avenue. I am pleased to report the company has taken several additional steps to boost driver numbers including: an additional recruitment open day, which is the third this year; recruitment roadshows at all major shopping centres across Dublin, new recruitment audio announcements on all Dublin Bus services; new recruitment scrolls on our buses' digital information system; a refreshed social and traditional media campaign; and engagement with the Department of Transport on exploring non-EU and EEA labour markets. Recruitment remains one of the biggest challenges facing the organisation and we anticipate it will be the second quarter before we hit the required driver numbers. We very much regret the impact this is having on our customers. All our employees are working hard to minimise the effect of driver recruitment challenges.

This brings me to the final item I want to address today, which is the current status of RTPI and its reliability. RTPI is about providing information on schedules to customers in a timely manner and enhancing their customer experience while using public bus transport. As the committee will be aware, the three main real-time information systems are on-street signs, the Dublin Bus app and the Transport for Ireland app. Dublin Bus operations and technical development teams have been closely monitoring the performance of all RTPI systems. Since we last met with the committee, further technical errors have been resolved with a software delivery on 1 December 2022. Since then, the company has undertaken the largest on-street survey in the history of the organisation. This has meant monitoring thousands of trips and cross-checking them against our technical systems. Our surveys have found that RTPI is operating at nearly 98% accuracy and many of the technical challenges with RTPI have been resolved. In addition to our own monitoring, the NTA has conducted independent surveys of all RTPI channels. We do all of this work with one goal in mind, which is to improve Dublin Bus services for our customers, partners and all people who use them across the greater Dublin area.

We are facing challenges today but our steadfast commitment to deliver for the people of the greater Dublin area will never waiver. We are working night and day to ensure we overcome RTPI, recruitment and service performance challenges. As we carry out this work I assure the committee of a few things. Dublin Bus is a well-positioned and resilient business with a clear purpose. The company is making significant progress in the recruitment of drivers. We continue to welcome new drivers every month once they have completed their professional training at our training school. Our technical team, in conjunction with the NTA, continues to monitor the performance of RTPI to ensure it provides the level of reliability expected by the travelling public. We are communicating openly with customers, the committee and all stakeholders to get and share feedback on our progress.

Although we know that overcoming recent challenges will not be simple or straightforward, I assure the committee members that Dublin Bus will be relentless in its endeavours to resolve these issues through the extremely capable and dedicated employees in our organisation. As stated earlier we look forward to showing the committee members at first hand our operations and provide the committee with an opportunity for additional discussions on these matters during a visit to the Broadstone depot. I thank the committee members and the Chairman for their time.