Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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39. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the health and safety requirements in place for the private operator of 10% of the Dublin Bus routes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42145/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Under the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 it is a statutory function of the National Transport Authority (NTA) to determine the appropriate mix of directly awarded and competitively tendered bus services and to conduct the public procurement process relating to the tendering out of 10% of the PSO bus network.

I have welcomed the announcement by the NTA that it has selected a preferred bidder for the contract relating to the operation of 24 PSO bus routes in the Dublin Metropolitan area. The NTA will now enter into a public transport services contract with the successful operator and will apply the same level of control of these tendered routes as it does to the routes which are at present operated by Dublin Bus under their contract with the NTA. 

The NTA requires any transport operator who operates public transport services to act within the law, including relevant health and safety legislation. Consistent with this approach, the tendering process completed by the NTA will require the transport operator who has been awarded the contract to comply with relevant health and safety legislation.