Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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253. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount spent on LocalLink services in each of the years since 2015, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37892/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As Minister for Transport I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. It is the National Transport Authority (NTA) which has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally. The NTA also has national responsibility for integrated local and rural transport, including management of the Rural Transport Programme which operates under the Local Link brand.

My Department provides aggregate funding for Local Link services to the NTA. Since 2018, the total annual allocation for Local Link services has included funding for Rural Regular Services from the Public Service Obligation (PSO) budget provision. Total allocations (including the aforementioned PSO allocation) for the years 2019 - 2021 are as follows:

2015 - €10.6m

2016 - €12.2m

2017 - €14.4m

2018 - €19.5m

2019 - €21.0m

2020 - €23.4m

2021 - €28.2m