Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount it costs to run the National Transport Authority; the amount it costs to run his Department; if he will quantify the savings at his Department when some of its duties were transferred to the new authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47938/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The cost of running the National Transport Authority (NTA) is an operational matter for the Authority and I have referred the Deputy's question to it for direct reply.  Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.

My Department's 2012 expenditure allocation and 2011 provisional expenditure outturn are set out in the Revised Estimates Volume, Vote 31 which is published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and is available on that Department's website.  However for the Deputies information the allocation in 2012 from the Exchequer to the NTA is €376,985,000 (€246,747,000 for current expenditure and €130,238,000 for capital expenditure) and the provisional expenditure outturn for 2011 was €376,985,000 (€269,348,000 for current expenditure and €211,000,000 for capital expenditure).

The NTA has assumed responsibility for a range of tasks from my Department including national bus route licensing, rail passenger rights redress, Integrated Ticketing, the rural transport programme, the public service contracts with the CIÉ companies and for managing the State’s contract with Irish Rail for infrastructure.   To resource this remit a number of staff posts was transferred from my Department’s allocation to the NTA. The associated pay allocations are adjusted to reflect the transfer of posts to the NTA. Consequently there are no net savings in my Department's vote as a result of the transfer of functions. However, it should be noted that the rationale for the creation of the NTA was not to generate cost savings.