Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I hear the frustrations he has quite rightly articulated in respect of his community and decisions that were taken.

Public consultation should be at the core of decision-making processes of all State agencies. There are a number of different ways in which the NTA meets with elected public representatives to discuss public transport projects. At a statutory level, section 41 of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 requires the chairperson and chief executive of the NTA to account for the performance of the functions of the authority to a committee established by either House of the Oireachtas. This type of engagement with Oireachtas committees happens regularly. Just yesterday, the NTA appeared before the Joint Committee on Transport to discuss the service delivery issues being experienced across the public transport network in Dublin. In addition to this type of statutory engagement, representatives from the NTA regularly meet elected public representatives to discuss issues relating to publicly funded transport services and capital investment projects and various other matters under the authority's remit. Public representatives who wish to request a meeting with the NTA can contact the authority's Oireachtas liaison unit to request such a meeting. A meeting request will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and will depend on the availability of the relevant NTA staff to facilitate such a meeting.

As already mentioned, during these engagements with public representatives the NTA can discuss any issues relevant to their statutory functions. As the Senator will be aware, the NTA has an extensive remit and plays an integral role in the implementation of public transport initiatives nationally. 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. In its role as the public transport licensing agency, the NTA is responsible for administering funding support through the establishment of contracts between it and the relevant operators. In 2022, this amounted to €538 million in Exchequer funding for public service obligation and Local Link services provided by State operators and under contract by the NTA. More recently, €563 million has been secured as part of budget 2023 negotiations for the continued improvement of these services.

This year, the NTA has implemented a number of fare initiatives including the introduction of the young adult card and the 20% cost-of-living fare reduction on public service obligation services. As Senators will be aware, the Government has ambitious plans for public transport infrastructure nationwide. The programme for Government commits to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland and is supported by the national development plan, under which €35 billion has been allocated to maintain, enhance and improve transport infrastructure across the country over the next decade. The substantial investment in transport in recent years and the planned ramping up of major projects, such as BusConnects, in every city, Connecting Ireland in rural areas and DART+ and MetroLink means that the national public transport landscape will continue to transform for the better over the coming years.

The NTA is the approving authority for these major public transport projects. Funding for these and other rail and bus investment is allocated to the NTA by the Department of Transport and then provided to the relevant sponsoring authorities. I hope this provides the Senator with an update on the processes and procedures around the NTA. I also hope that his request will be responded to in due course and will result in a meeting with officials from the NTA.