Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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484. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the estimated cost of increasing the public transport PSO by 5%, 10%, 25% and 50%, respectively, in tabular form. [38859/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport in Ireland.

The award of public service obligation (PSO) funding falls under the independent statutory remit of the National Transport Authority (NTA). The allocations to the transport companies are decided by the NTA in exercise of its statutory mandate and in accordance with the various contract arrangements that it has in place with PSO service providers.

The PSO subsidy represents one of a multiple of revenue streams to the operators of the public transport services; their other sources of income include passenger fare revenues, State funding under the Free Travel Scheme administered by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, and commercial non-fare income such as advertising revenue. The main purpose of the PSO subvention payment is to meet the gap for an operator between income from fares and other sources and the cost of operating services.

The 2019 Exchequer allocation for PSO services is €287.467 million. Percentage amounts can be calculated from this base. Future funding levels for the programme will be subject to the annual Estimate and Budgetary processes.