Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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92. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his engagement with the Minister for Health to provide free public transport services to and from various points around each county in respect of the vaccination centres announced and in view of some of their locations. [9480/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The continued operation of the public transport sector is important and, from a very early stage in the Covid-19 crisis, public transport was designated by Government as among the essential services that could continue throughout the emergency. Guided by public health advice, measures have been introduced across the system to enable the continued operation of services safely during the pandemic.

There is continued strong messaging that public transport capacity remains restricted and, therefore, should only be used for essential travel, with only those who have to travel at peak times doing so. People are being encouraged to walk or cycle where practical, and organisations are encouraged to continue to facilitate working from home.

The Government is also spending considerable additional Exchequer funds on the public transport sector, including temporary funding support for the non-PSO (licensed, commercial) bus sector, in order to support the continued operation of necessary services, despite the reduced demand and the restricted capacity owing to the Covid-19 situation.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has the statutory responsibility for the regulation of fares in relation to public passenger transport services and also has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public transport services. Any assessment of a proposed change to public transport fare structures would be a matter for the NTA to consider in the first instance and as such I have had no engagement with the Minister of Health on this issue. I have, therefore, referred the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.