Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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600. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to request Bus Éireann to stop providing services that amount to below cost selling where private bus operators are providing a similar competing service, to review state aid procedures and the public service obligation payments and to investigate possible abuses of a possible dominant position by Bus Éireann and to make the findings public. [11520/16]

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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601. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the individual sums agreed to be paid and the actual sums paid for the provision by Bus Éireann of its public service obligations on the network of transport services in Athlone, Balbriggan, Cork, Drogheda, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, Navan, Sligo and Waterford operated by Bus Éireann in each of the years 2009 to 2015, inclusive, in tabular form. [11522/16]

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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602. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the average amount paid to Bus Éireann, calculated on a per kilometre basis, for meeting its public service obligations on the network of transport services in Athlone, Balbriggan, Cork, Drogheda, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, Navan, Sligo and Waterford, for each of the years 2009 to 2015, inclusive, in tabular form. [11523/16]

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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603. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the individual agreed scheduled transport services to be performed by Bus Éireann in Athlone, Balbriggan, Cork, Drogheda, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, Navan, Sligo and Waterford and to confirm for each of the years that the National Transport Authority had at all times a verifiable system in place to be absolutely certain that each of these scheduled services were actually performed and that Bus Éireann returned to the National Transport Authority any subsidy received in respect of any service not performed for each of the years 2009 to 2015, inclusive, in scheduled format. [11525/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 600 to 603, inclusive, together.

It is important to differentiate between publicly subvented services and commercial services.

Bus Éireann provides publicly subvented bus services on foot of public transport services contracts directly awarded to it by the NTA under the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 (as amended). These services, also known as PSO services, are deemed to be socially necessary but financially unviable public transport services.

The award of these contracts and the public money provided to Bus Éireann in respect of the contracts must conform to the requirements of EU Regulation 1370/2007, which creates a legal framework regulating how EU Member States award and pay compensation for services deemed to be PSO. The purpose of the Regulation is to ensure transparency in the subvention paid for public transport services by requiring all PSO transport services to be subject to contracts. Public money made available to operators in line with the Regulation's requirements ensures compliance with the general EU legal framework regarding State Aid. The Regulation is supported in domestic legislation by the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 (as amended).

By the very nature of this regulatory framework, the PSO services in question are services deemed to be socially necessary but financially unviable and therefore Bus Éireann is not operating 'below cost selling' on these PSO routes. Each year the fares charged on the Bus Éireann PSO services are determined by the NTA and each year the NTA audits the assignment of costs between Bus Éireann's PSO services and its other commercial services to help guard against the potential for cross-subsidisation of commercial services by Exchequer funding.

As I've just alluded to, Bus Éireann does also operate commercial services under the Expressway brand. These services are not in receipt of any Exchequer funds and are subject to competitive pressure from any other licensed operator. The third major area of operations for Bus Éireann is of course the school transport scheme which it administers on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills.

The Deputy is probably aware that in October 2014 the European Commission completed a State Aid investigation into alleged unlawful State Aid granted to Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus. The Commission's decision is available to view at .

The Commission Decision found that the PSO scheme was 'existing aid' and for this reason was not considered unlawful State Aid. However, the Commission decision determined that aspects of the School Transport Scheme were not compatible with EU rules and that 'appropriate measures' would need to be agreed to ensure that the scheme, in its future implementation, was compatible. The Department of Education and Skills is leading Ireland's response on this issue with my own Department providing input as necessary.

The various data sought by the Deputy in his questions are an issue for the NTA and I have therefore forwarded the Deputy's questions to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.