Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This question is in regard to the public transport system. My Department and the National Transport Authority are working with public transport operators to increase the efficiency and attractiveness of existing public transport services.  We are not in a financial position to make a significant investment in the public transport network, but we can get a better return from the existing public transport system through targeted investment and better use of current resources and by using smart technology to make public transport more responsive and user-friendly.

Targeted investment is essential in these financially straitened times.  An example is the Luas BXD project to link the Luas lines. The Government has also continued to invest in the bus companies, including the recent decision to purchase 80 new buses for Dublin Bus at a cost of €26 million and 60 new buses for Bus Éireann in 2011 at a cost to the Exchequer of €19 million. Considerable funding has also been provided in recent years for measures to make public transport more attractive such as the Leap card, real-time passenger information, automatic vehicle location, AVL, and providing Wi-Fi.

On 24 July the Government decided to provide additional funding of €36 million for CIE to ensure the companies could continue to operate for the rest of 2012. This would bring the total subvention for the year to €278 million, higher than the subvention level for 2010 and, in fact, the fifth highest level of subvention ever.  CIE is progressing the preparation of a revised five year business plan to address the underlying financial challenges facing CIE in order that its public transport services can be provided efficiently and cost effectively over the period of the plan.

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