Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Coppinger for the question. The question appears to be on the tendering of Bus Éireann routes and asks me to make a statement on the matter. I will respond to the other part of the question later if the Deputy wishes.

As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding relating to public transport. However, I am not involved in the day to day operations of public transport or in public service obligation, PSO, contract arrangements.

It is a statutory function of the National Transport Authority, under the Dublin Transport Authority Act, 2008, and EU Regulation 1370/2007, to determine the appropriate mix of directly awarded and competitively tendered PSO services.

In 2015, as part of the bus market opening, the NTA sought expressions of interest from public transport operators to operate bus services on certain routes in the Dublin metropolitan, Dublin commuter and Waterford areas. This resulted in approximately 10% of PSO services which were operated under direct award by Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus being competitively tendered. As the Deputy is aware, Bus Éireann won the contract for delivery of the Waterford services which are expected to commence in March 2019. Go-Ahead Ireland was announced as the winner of the other competitions, including the Dublin commuter competition for certain commuter routes on the Kildare corridor into Dublin previously operated by Bus Éireann. It is expected that Go-Ahead Ireland will commence operations on the Kildare corridor routes in quarter 2, 2019.

The competitive tendering that has recently been introduced by the NTA into the bus market is happening at the same time as significant growth in public transport services. The market opening will therefore not give rise to a reduction in employee numbers or in services by Bus Éireann or Dublin Bus as they both need drivers to operate new expanded timetables on their remaining routes. Of course, these expanded and intensified services by Bus Éireann or Dublin Bus will be subvented by the NTA, so the 10% market opening will not result in a corresponding reduction in their PSO subsidy, as might otherwise be expected.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

The NTA's current direct award public service obligation, PSO, contract with Bus Éireann expires at the end of November 2019. The NTA is required to follow a statutory process underpinned by both EU and national legislation before the direct award contracts may be renewed.

As part of this process, the NTA launched a public consultation process in early October on the bus services contracts. This consultation informed the NTA's recent decision on the renewal of the contracts, including in respect of the direct award and competitive tender balance of contracts for Bus Éireann.

Regarding the direct award contracts post 2019 in respect of Bus Éireann, the NTA has announced it will directly award an equivalent service level that the company has in December 2019, amend that contract in 2021 to reduce it by up to 5% of services and provide the removed services through a separate contract following an open competitive tender process.

It will be open to Bus Éireann to tender for these services if it so wishes.

The new direct award contracts proposed by the NTA will provide a guaranteed level of PSO funding to Bus Éireann up to 2024.

As the Deputy is aware, the public transport PSO programme represents a significant expenditure of taxpayers' money. Overall, its funding has increased by some 35% in the past three years. This year €285 million in funding has been allocated towards funding our PSO services.

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