Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

I thank Deputy Ahern for raising this important issue. It is following the theme of lots of tonight's priority and oral questions during Question Time. I am taking this issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, who is in Brazil. I want to clarify that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, neither the Minister, me as Minister of State or the officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services.

The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services rests with the National Transport Authority. That being said, I reassure Deputy Ahern that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this. To support this objective, the Department of Transport secured €940 million in budget 2026 in funding for public service obligation and TFI Local Link services, an increase of 43% from €658 million in 2025.

BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system, providing better bus services across our cities. It is the largest investment in the bus system in the history of the State and is managed by the NTA. The aim of the network is to improve the existing Transport for Ireland system through enhanced services with high frequency spines and new local, orbital and radial routes.

The recently launched F spine, providing routes F1, F2, and F3, is part of phase 7 of the BusConnects network redesign and introduces high-frequency, 24-hour bus services on routes F1, F2 and 80 on key corridors, enhancing connectivity between areas such as Tallaght, Finglas, Charlestown and the city centre. This redesign also introduces new radial services on routes 23, 24, 73 and 82, and the new local route L89, to streamline the network and make services more efficient.

Ahead of implementation, the NTA undertook extensive communication efforts, distributing over 200,000 booklets to households across the areas covered by the routes. It also advertised the new services in local media outlets and online and provided detailed briefings to local public representatives. It is acknowledged that these changes require some passengers to make their journeys in a different way. In some cases, customers now benefit from direct services where transfers were previously required, while others may need to interchange.

The TFI 90 fare ensures that transfers incur no additional cost.

In the days after the launch of phase 7, the NTA reported a technical fault in the Dublin Bus priority system, which adjusts traffic signals to ease bus movement. The fault lasted three consecutive days and caused unexpected delays, which understandably frustrated customers. Thankfully, the issue was resolved quickly, and performance is expected to continue to improve. While this issue was separate from the BusConnects new service roll-out, it did impact all Dublin Bus routes during that period.

The NTA and transport operators are working hard to ensure that the services are bedding in well but understand that it can take some time for people to get accustomed to any new arrangement. The kind of issues experienced at the launch of phase 7 are similar to those experienced during the early stages of implementation of previous phases that were addressed and resolved.

In terms of the S orbital, phase 5b commenced on 26 November 2023 and involved the introduction of new southern orbital, radial and local routes. The S2, 74 and L25 routes are operated by Dublin Bus, while the S4, S6, S8, W2 and L55 are operated by Go-Ahead Ireland. This phase represented a major boost in service levels of approximately 80%. To put that into context, routes 17 and 175 used to provide approximately five services an hour in each direction during peak times.

We have introduced a lot of bus routes and changed them around. I will come back in and answer a bit more for the Deputy.

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