Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

​As the Deputy is aware, bus services in counties Cavan and Monaghan, and indeed rural Ireland generally,comprise two distinct types of services. There are PSO services, which are socially necessary but financially unviable services, provided by operators under contract with the National Transport Authority (NTA) and which receive taxpayer funding. And then there are commercial bus services, which are commercial services provided by operators under licence from the NTA and which receive no taxpayer funding.

Counties Cavan and Monaghan are served by both types of bus services.

The PSO network in the counties comprises approximately 17 routes operated primarily by Bus Éireann but also one PSO route operated by Whartons Travel Limited. The Deputy will be aware that funding for PSO services has increased in recent Budgets with Budget 2017 providing an additional 11% in taxpayer funding for the PSO programme generally.  PSO services generally are improving and expanding as reflected in the strong passenger growth figures recorded for 2016 when almost 32 million passenger journeys were made on Bus Éireann PSO network nationwide, which represented a 5.5% increase as compared with 2015's figures.

Commercial bus services in the counties are provided by a mix of private operators and also Expressway, which is operated by Bus Éireann. Bus Éireann has recently announced its intention to withdraw one of its three Expressway routes in the region, namely route 33 Dublin/Derry.

As I have stated on numerous occassions, in cases where a commercial operator, such as Expressway, decides to alter or withdraw a route, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has the statutory powers available to it to respond as appropriate to ensure continued transport connectivity. In response to Bus Éireann's recent announcement, the NTA published an assessment of the proposed changes and indicated what action it believes is necessary to ensure continued public transport connectivity.

As indicated in that published assessment, the NTA does not believe that connectivity issues arise on the route 33 corridor following the proposed withdrawal of Expressway's route 33. In publishing its assessment the NTA has invited feedback on its proposals. A copy of their assessment is available on www.nationaltransport.ie.