Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important topic. I wish to clarify that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and the overall funding for public transport, but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statuary responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the National Transport Authority. The NTA works with the public transport operators that deliver the services and have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters. That said, I reassure Deputy Feighan that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable, realistic, sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal.

To support this objective in budget 2023, the Department of Transport secured €563.55 million of funding for public service obligation and TFI Local Link services, which was up from €538 million in 2022. More recently, under budget 2024, a funding package of approximately €611.813 million has been secured for PSO and Local Link services. This includes funding for the continuation of the 20% fare reduction on PSO services, the young adult card on both PSO and commercial bus services, and the 90-minute fare until the end of 2024. Funding has also been secured to support new and enhanced bus and rail services next year.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government is committed to improving public transport, both bus and rail, and is backing up that commitment with significant investments across the network. This includes initiatives such as the DART+ programme, the arrival of new DART+ fleet, the proposed replacement of the current Enterprise fleet and the introduction of an additional 41 intercity railcars or ICRs. These improvements will have short-, medium- and longer-term benefits for the rail network. More immediately, while the existing Iarnród Éireann operational fleet is already fully deployed on scheduled services, earlier this year, Iarnród Éireann took delivery of the final batch of the 41 ICRs. The NTA has advised that there are plans to utilise the new ICRs to extend the length of multiple train sets operating on the current rail network and passengers can expect to see longer trains in operation from the first quarter of 2024 once the commissioning phase for the new carriages is complete.

Regarding the Dublin to Sligo line, I understand that Iarnród Éireann continues to operate the pre-Covid schedule on this line, with eight train services each way daily. The route is expected to carry approximately 1.2 million journeys by the end of 2023. I am advised that Iarnród Éireann's Strategy 2027 envisages supplementing the existing service between Sligo and Dublin with additional trains for part of the route to provide an hourly service from locations such as Mullingar or Longford. However, I understand that there are some constraints on the expansion of services on the line because it is predominantly a single line section of railway between Maynooth and Sligo, meaning additional services must cross each other at passing locations between two and three times per journey. The operation of Sligo services is further impacted between Connolly and Maynooth due to stopping commuter services operating within this section coming from Maynooth, M3 Parkway and Phoenix Park tunnel lines. While the Sligo intercity trains are planned to operate unhindered in this section, this is not always possible as commuter service levels increase, which results in limited track capacity and the ability to operate additional intercity services that require large gaps in service to operate unhindered. Nonetheless, the introduction of new DART+ fleet from 2025 will free up intercity trains for use on the national network and enable the company to assess, with the NTA, possible service enhancements, subject to demand on the network at that time.

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