Mr. Tim Gaston:

I will respond to the Deputy's questions on routes 5 and 7. It is correct that there were a number of public consultation meetings and representations were made to us, to Bus Éireann and to others at the time. We organised a number of discussions and then reviewed the entire network requirements in those immediate areas. We came in with a package of services that would deliver to the communities that were being impacted on by the withdrawals. There were three main ways by which we delivered. We modified some of the PSO services in those areas to bring in additional communities. Through discussions with the transport co-ordination units, we also put additional funding, something of the order of €300,000, into the rural network to support additional services in that area. We also took out a couple of small services that were not being met by either of those two options. We went to the market and providers came in and those services are now up and running, all being provided by local businesses. Through a network of mechanisms and packages of solutions we had, we were able to configure things to provide services to those communities. The level of commentary back to the National Roads Authority has fallen very significantly. We would consider that to be a successful delivery.

On the question of tendering of routes, a decision was made to tender 10% of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann services to the open market. The process of tendering really required us to put together packages of services that could be delivered by another provider coming in, so the decision was made to take 10% and split it into two specific packages on the Bus Éireann services. One of those packages is a number of the services in the Waterford area. When a new provider is coming in, it makes sense that it should have a locality in which to have a base. We have chosen two for the Bus Éireann bus market opening exercise, the Waterford area and the Kildare corridor. About 7% of the Bus Éireann activity would be the Kildare corridor services and about 3% of the Bus Éireann activity would be in Waterford. Those packages were put out to the market last year and that procurement is still continuing.

Deputy asked specifically about PSO funding. Mr. Martin Nolan has touched on this in his response. In fact, the Department and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport have granted the NTA additional PSO funding for 2016. We are in the process of again working with Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus, Irish Rail and the transport co-ordination units to see where we can expand and bring in additional services. The Kerry area was reviewed last year and an additional network of services was provided in Kerry to bring about improvements. We are looking at present at a number of other geographical areas across the country, which we will bring in as quickly as can be done sensibly within the PSO and the rural transport network, using the transport co-ordination units.

On the question of community input, that comes in a number of ways. Representations come to the National Roads Authority and we regularly meet community groups, local representatives and so on. One of the strengths of the rural programme continues to be the extent to which local people are involved in the transport co-ordination units, TCUs. Each TCU has its own board, comprising people who give of their time voluntarily to contribute to the discussions as to how best those local needs are meet. We then contribute to the funding of their services and we give guidelines and get involved in network planning where it is appropriate to dovetail with other services.

The vast majority of the decisions that are important to the local community are made by the management of the transport co-ordination units, TCUs, guided by their local board. We welcome the very heavy local involvement and it is a significant benefit to have that local knowledge inputting into local decisions where local services are being provided.