Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)

The operation and provision of bus services is a matter for Dublin Bus in conjunction with the National Transport Authority, NTA. The operation of the Luas service is a matter for the operator, Veolia Transdev, in conjunction with the Railway Procurement Agency and the NTA.

Each year, funding is provided for socially necessary but non-commercial public transport services in Ireland. In the case of Dublin Bus, the funding of PSO services is governed by a public transport contract with the NTA, which the company entered into in December 2009. The contents of the contract, such as the level of service to be provided and the basis for maintaining it, may be reviewed at any time by the NTA in consultation with Dublin Bus.

As the Deputy is aware, there have in recent years been revisions to the network and level of services provided by Dublin Bus. Some of these revisions have increased public transport numbers and were aimed at achieving efficiencies and implementing the recommendations of the 2009 Deloitte cost and efficiency review which identified some scope for greater efficiencies in Dublin Bus. The final range of network adjustments will be completed during 2012. The objective of the redesign of the bus network was to provide current and future bus customers with a service that will be modern, accessible, integrated, easy to understand, punctual and frequent.

I am supportive of the efforts of Dublin Bus to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness. Given the losses recorded by it in recent years and having regard to unavoidable constraints on the availability of Exchequer funds for PSO subvention, it is important that Dublin Bus continues to deliver greater efficiency and effectiveness to safeguard the overall sustainability of public transport services in the future.

No PSO subvention is paid for the operation of the Luas services. However, the level of income generated from passenger and other income has in recent times not met the cost of operation of services. As a consequence, Veolia Transdev, in consultation with the RPA and NTA, has planned for some service adjustments. I understand that the main adjustments will be in the off-peak periods on the parts of the network that are not heavily utilised.

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