Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank Deputies McAuliffe and Devlin for giving me the opportunity to discuss this issue on behalf of the Minister. I understand that the Deputies' questions are in relation to ongoing issues with the provision and reliability of bus services provided in Dublin, in particular those services provided by Go-Ahead Ireland. I further understand that the issue of service reliability with Go-Ahead Ireland routes was previously raised by several Deputies in recent weeks during Topical Issue debates and parliamentary questions.

The Department has responsibility for policy and overall funding in respect of public transport. However, the Department is not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services nationally, including those public service obligation, PSO, routes in Dublin currently operated by Go-Ahead Ireland or other operators. It is the NTA that has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally by way of public transport services contracts and for the allocation of associated funding to the relevant transport operators. As the Deputies know, PSO services are socially necessary but financially unviable services and the PSO programme represents a significant expenditure of taxpayers' money. Currently, the vast majority of PSO bus services are provided by either 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 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 transport plays a key role in delivering this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2022, the Department of Transport secured approximately €538 million of funding for PSO and Local Link services this year. The Department recently secured €563 million in budget 2023 for the continuation of these essential PSO services and for the continuation of both the 20% average fare discount and the young adult card.

In the context of the Deputies' specific questions on ongoing issues with the provision and reliability of bus services provided in Dublin, and in particular those provided by Go-Ahead Ireland, the NTA has advised that the performance of all public transport operators is closely monitored by the authority as part of the contractual arrangements in place between it and the operators.

Go-Ahead Ireland is not alone in experiencing these issues. Many operators in the public transport sector are facing similar challenges with staffing, both because of Covid-19-related absences and with regard to recruiting new drivers. The public transport industry has been particularly hard hit with driver shortages as operators attempt to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity as well as deliver intended service improvements. However, while these staffing issues are being experienced across the system 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 that are impacting on service delivery, with a number of services not operating as scheduled.

I understand that the NTA is working closely with bus operators, including Go-Ahead Ireland, to try to mitigate the impact of the driver shortage through extensive driver recruitment campaigns, engagement with the Road Safety Authority, RSA, regarding the testing and licence process of new bus drivers and by working with the operator to minimise service cancellations, ensure first- and last-service buses operate and on low-frequency routes to avoid, where possible, the cancellation of consecutive low-frequency services.

Before coming into the Chamber, I got updated information from the NTA that Go-Ahead has indicated that it will have the adequate number of drivers by December of this year.

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