Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will bring the Deputy's message to the Minister. I think the school bus transport issue may go to the Minister, Deputy Foley. I take the Deputy's point, however. I would like to reassure him that both the NTA and the Department of Transport have been engaging directly with commercial bus operators to help inform policy decisions with regard to the public transport sector, particularly those related to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on the sector and the various fare initiatives being introduced this year.

In addition to the working group I referenced earlier, the Department of Transport has been engaging with the Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland since May 2020. To date, 23 meetings have taken place. More recently, on 25 March, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, met with the CTTC to discuss its concerns and the key issues facing the sector.

While it is not intended to include the commercial operators as part of the 20% average fare initiative, which is applicable to PSO services and is due to run to the end of 2022, it is intended to include these operators as part of the young adult card initiative. The NTA is working closely with operators to achieve this shared goal as quickly as possible. As the Deputy will appreciate, however, in order to roll out the card across the commercial bus sector, time is needed to make and test the necessary changes to the wide array of ticketing systems employed across the network. The NTA has advised that the intensive technical work to achieve this is on track.

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