Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Ward for raising this really important topic, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Darragh O'Brien. From the outset, it would be remiss of me not to clarify that while the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport, neither the Minister nor his officials is involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The NTA, to which the Deputy referred, has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally. It works with the public transport operators who deliver the service and have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters. That said, I would like to reassure the Deputy that, as outlined in the programme for Government, Securing Ireland's Future, the Government is strongly committed to enhancing transportation networks and infrastructure development. Public transport obviously plays a key role in delivery of that goal.

To support this objective, in budget 2026 the Department of Transport secured €940 million of funding for public service obligation and TFI Local Link services. That was a 43% uplift, a really significant uplift and an increase from €658 million in 2025 to €940 million for next year. This package includes funding for the continuation of various fares initiatives such as the young adult card and the 90-minute fare until the end of 2025. Funding has also been provided to extend free child fares on public service transport to include those aged five to eight years of age and to support the roll-out of new and enhanced bus and rail services under programmes such as BusConnects, to which the Deputy referred, and Connecting Ireland. BusConnects, as Deputy Ward acknowledged, is a transformative project and investment in the bus system that is providing better bus services right across our cities. It is the largest investment in the bus system in the history of the State. It is managed by the NTA with the aim of improving the existing Transport for Ireland system through enhanced services with high-frequency spines and new local orbital and radial routes.

In terms of those high-frequency spines, Deputy Ward's constituency is a beneficiary of the E1 and E2 routes. As he said, the E2 was formerly known as the 46A. In relation to capacity on those routes, Dublin Bus has confirmed that its operation teams have identified capacity issues with the E1 service. I know the Deputy has been working closely with Dublin Bus and the NTA, which have helped to make sure those problems were addressed by providing additional morning and evening services. He spoke about how much of a pinch-point rush hour is. These additional services, which are now implemented, are there to tackle the morning and evening pinch-points on the E1.

Dublin Bus has informed the Department that along with the NTA it is monitoring the E2 service, and the data available show that customer demand is currently being met. I know that does not tally with the experience shared by the Deputy today. That is something I will definitely ask the Minister to take back to the NTA.

I want to reassure the Deputy that the Department of Transport, the NTA and the public transport operators are working to ensure the optimised deployment of resources across the network to best meet passenger demand.

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