Dáil debates

Wednesday, 5 October 2022

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Bus Services

9:52 am

Photo of Anne RabbitteAnne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Would the Deputy believe that this is my second time to take a Topical Issue debate on transport? I think the last debate was when Deputy Lahart raised issues with route 174. Deputy Whitmore has referred to routes 184 and 44A. I am sad to say that it is the same operator. I will keep to the script, which is from the Minister for Transport. I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I understand the Deputy’s question about the issues with Go-Ahead Ireland bus service provision in north Wicklow. I further understand that the issue of service reliability with Go-Ahead Ireland routes has been raised by Deputies Devlin and McAuliffe and, as I said, by Deputy Lahart in recent weeks.

I note that the Department of Transport has a responsibility for policy and for overall funding in relation to public transport. However, the Department is not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services nationally, including the public service obligation, PSO, routes that are currently operated by Go-Ahead Ireland. The NTA has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally by way of public transport service contracts and for the allocation of associated funding to the relevant transport operators. PSO services are socially necessary but financially unviable services. The PSO programme represents a significant expenditure of taxpayers' money. Funding support has increased in recent years.

For anybody who is listening in, it is not as though the Government and the Department are not paying Go-Ahead Ireland to provide a service. That is an important piece. While there is a lot of language here, they are being paid to provide a service at designated times that is reliable and can be trusted. That is the point. While it might not be viable to run all of these services, we are paying Go-Ahead Ireland to provide them. We acknowledge that as a State.

Currently, the vast majority of PSO bus services are provided by Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann through what are known as direct award contracts. The remaining routes are operated by Go-Ahead Ireland, which entered the market in September 2018 as part of the Government's commitment to open up the bus market through a programme of tendering known as bus market opening.

A key Government objective is to provide all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective in budget 2022, the Department of Transport secured €538 million of funding for PSO and Local Link services provided by State operators under contract by the NTA. The Department recently secured €563 million in budget 2023 for the continuation of these essential services and for the continuation of both the 20% average fare discount and the young adult card.

As the Deputy is aware, the Covid-19 emergency had a profound impact on the public transport sector due to the fall in passenger numbers and the associated drop in fare revenues. I will skip through the next part of the script, because Covid-19 has moved on and because people are dependent on the delivery of services.

I have further been advised that Go-Ahead Ireland is not alone in experiencing issues and that many operators in the transport sector are facing challenges with staffing as a result of Covid absences and issues with recruiting new drivers. While these staffing issues are being experienced by both commercial and PSO operators, it is also true that Go-Ahead Ireland is experiencing higher than normal levels of Covid-related staff absences at present. These absences are having a knock-on effect on service delivery with some services not operating as scheduled. I understand that the NTA is working with Go-Ahead Ireland to try to mitigate the impacts through driver recruitment campaigns.

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