Mr. Stephen Kent:

I thank the Cathaoirleach, Deputies and Senators for inviting us to take part in today’s session. I am pleased to be joined by Ms Jean O’Sullivan, our chief people officer. She will present and help me with any questions members may have. Bus Éireann is expecting to deliver over 115 million passenger journeys this year, expanding on our record-breaking achievement in 2024. We operate all 216 of our public service obligation, PSO, routes under contract to the National Transport Authority, NTA. We have also tendered and have been awarded contracts for Waterford city services, the eastern commuter corridor, the Carlow town service, the 245 service for Cork-Dublin and, most recently, for the 310 service in Limerick, a new contract we expect to commence on behalf of the authority early next year.

For over 57 years, we have operated the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department of education. This is the largest such scheme in Europe, now operating across 10,600 routes. This year, we will carry in excess of 178,000 children to school each day. The number of school transport tickets issued has risen by 5% against this time last year. For context, working with the Department, our team is now providing services for 50% more children than in 2018.

Our commercial service, Expressway, operates across 14 national routes and will carry a further 4 million passengers this year. The scale of this service delivery would not be possible without the support of all our stakeholders, contractors and, most especially, our hard-working staff. Bus Éireann is a people- and customer-centric organisation and I am proud of our staff, their dedication and commitment. We are committed to delivering a valued public transport service across Ireland.

We are committed to ensuring we deliver the highest levels of service quality. Performance management of that service has never been more prioritised, especially as we grow and know that more people than ever now rely on our service. However, with a growing population and the constraints of existing road infrastructure in our regional cities and towns, there is no doubt that congestion continues to be a serious challenge for consistent service delivery. In Cork, which is Bus Éireann’s largest urban service, only 2% of the kilometres our services operate are in bus lanes. I firmly believe that the opportunity exists to deliver greater bus prioritisation infrastructure in Cork, other regional cities and the greater Dublin area to unlock the full economic, social and sustainability potential that public transport usage will bring to our society. Bus Éireann would welcome further focus and development at local level to parallel the significant investment made in recent years in providing additional bus services and resources across the country.

As we have grown so significantly in recent years, recruitment has become a critical priority. Bus Éireann is running an ambitious nationwide campaign to meet future needs as we prepare for the introduction of new initiatives for the NTA and the Department of education, which will significantly expand services over the next three years. In 2024, we hired 500 new staff and have already held over 50 open days across the country, with more to come. We are active participants in the Department of Transport’s public transport workforce task force, which is developing cross-sectoral responses to this shared capacity challenge. I look forward to delivering real impact through this forum. As I have previously indicated, I believe Ireland needs at least 2,000 drivers over the next few years to meet planned increases in services through the NTA and through the Department of education for the school transport scheme. Delivering on that scale of recruitment requires significant focus and co-ordination.

Our most immediate short-term recruitment challenge is in Cork. While we are currently short 17 drivers - we have a pipeline of drivers in training - we will need to do even more to meet the needs of BusConnects early next year. In this respect, in addition to the advertising of open days and our collaboration with the Department's task force, we will go overseas this autumn to begin our first tranche of recruitment of drivers who hold D licences. Bus Éireann provides quality jobs in local communities across Ireland. We encourage anyone interested in joining our company to go to our website's careers portal where they will find out about a career with Bus Éireann.

Bus Éireann is committed to delivering on the decarbonisation of public transport, advancing the transition to electric vehicle, EV, services. This EV transformation must also be paired with a transition to high-blend biofuels. Bus Éireann has started introducing HVO across its fleet but I should signal that this will increase costs, which must be funded either through the Exchequer or from Revenue for commercial services. To support the cost of the transition, consideration of a carbon credit or decarbonisation supports for business is now more critical for a faster and more financially sustainable shift. This needs to be examined if we are really earnest about driving climate action sustainably.

As I conclude my seven-year tenure as CEO of Bus Éireann this month, I will leave this role very optimistic about the future of public transport in Ireland. In my time, I have seen Bus Éireann grow from delivering just over 83 million passenger journeys in 2018 to, as I said, growing to 115 million passenger journeys this year. That trajectory of growth and demand can and will continue with the support of the NTA and local authorities.

We continue to focus on ensuring our services are accessible and inclusive for all our customers. We have committed to sustainable practice across our company. We have built on our achievements in Athlone by upgrading Limerick’s bus service to Ireland’s first fully electric city fleet, enabling over 90% reductions in emissions. These results highlight the significant impact we can have as we transition more services.

We have introduced so many new services on behalf of our stakeholders, including Carlow town’s first ever bus service. We need to continue increasing frequency and expanding services as there are still many towns and villages in Ireland that need to be connected. School transport has grown significantly, from 120,000 pupils each school day in 2018 to over 178,000 today. For many families, it is considered their most valued public service. Growth, however, is not free and we urgently need to support the trajectory and ambition of this growth with more investment in new fleet, additional resources and new technology to manage this level of scale within the organisation. I mention this progress only as a source of confidence that while we will always have some short-term challenges in this industry to overcome, we continue to adapt, grow and collaborate to deliver. Bus Éireann is well positioned to deliver continued growth and decarbonisation for all our citizens, once investment continues.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for inviting us. We look forward to the discussion.