Mr. Hugh Creegan:

I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it today. I understand that the committee wishes to obtain an overview of the work of the National Transport Authority, NTA. To assist me in dealing with questions that may arise during the session, I am joined by Mr. Eoin Gillard, assistant director of transport investment, and Mr. John Nott, head of public transport service planning.

As members will know, the NTA has a broad remit of activities covering strategic planning of transport, the provision of transport services, the development of transport infrastructure and various regulatory and licensing activities.

The core Act under which the NTA was established is the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, which initially envisaged an entity focused on transport matters in the greater Dublin area that would be called the Dublin Transport Authority. However, before we were established in December 2009, this name and our remit was changed in the Public Transport Regulation Act of that year. Due to these changes, certain of our functions are national in nature. Others remain focused on the greater Dublin area.

Later legislation added the regulation of small public service vehicles - taxis, hackneys and limousines - with the incorporation into our functions of the functions of the dissolved Commission for Taxi Regulation. In 2015, the Vehicle Clamping Act gave the NTA responsibility for the regulation of clamping activities and the provision of a clamping appeals system.

The NTA works with a large number of partner organisations in the delivery of its remit, including the Department of Transport, local authorities, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, State and private transport operators and various other parties.

Given the extent of the NTA’s remit and associated activities, and in the interests of brevity of this introductory statement, I have attached an appendix providing specific detail on the various functions of the NTA, in addition to information on a variety of ongoing project and services activities to my opening statement. I hope that the note provides a reasonable level of information on various aspects of our work and further detail can be provided on any item as required. That concludes my opening remarks. I welcome any questions that members may have.