Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 30: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to expand the real-time information displays for Dublin Bus services throughout the city. [33438/11]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 47: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to ensure that a free official smartphone application for the most common operating systems is available with real-time information on all public transport options. [33437/11]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 30 and 47 together.

Following the establishment of the National Transport Authority (NTA) on 1 December 2009, the implementation of infrastructure projects in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), such as the Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI), now comes under the remit of the NTA.

I have been informed by the Authority, however, that the first phase of RTPI on the web encompasses all 5000 Dublin Bus stops. This information is taken from the Dublin Bus automatic vehicle location system and it is currently available on TransportforIreland.ie and dublinbus.ie/rtpi. The same information also feeds the current free Dublin Bus iPhone App with the app being available on android at the end of the month. RTPI for Bus Éireann will be available in early 2012 and information for other bus and rail transport operators will follow once their data is available in a reliable and standard format. The Transport for Ireland website will therefore continue to develop, and to offer integrated real time information on a multi-city, multi-operator, bilingual basis. The NTA will also develop an official free TransportforIreland iPhone and Android app based on this multi-operator information. With regard to the expansion of RTPI, currently 300 signs have been installed in the GDA and a further 200 are being deployed. It is not feasible to have an RTPI sign at every bus stop. However the real-time information for all 5000 Dublin Bus stops is available on the web, via the Dublin Bus iPhone app and the text service. The level of usage of these channels of information will feed into a review of any proposed expansion of the RTPI on-street signs programme.