Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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150. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the total Government subsidy for public transport for 2021 by bus, rail, including light rail, DART and Luas, taxi and others. [44945/21]

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.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally and for the allocation of associated funding to the relevant transport operators.

The main purpose of the subvention payment is to meet the gap between income from fares and the cost of operating services. The provision of public transport services nationally is heavily dependent on passenger fare revenue as it normally contributes about 65% of the operational cost. The remaining 35% of cost is covered by the PSO grant and the Department of Social Protection grant under the Free Travel Scheme.In Budget 2020, and prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, a total of €304 million was provided for PSO and Local Link rural regular services. Due to the impact of Covid-19, which resulted in the collapse of fare revenue on public transport, a further €370 million was allocated to enable the continued operation of public transport services in 2020. My primary focus is to ensure that public transport services continue to operate during this pandemic and I secured almost €659m for PSO services in 2021, of which €30m is to support the licensed bus sector.

In light of the NTA's responsibility in the allocation of PSO funding to public transport operators, I have forwarded the Deputy's question to the Authority for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.

The Deputy has also asked about subsidies provided to the Taxi industry and these are listed as follows:

- Standard SPSV licence renewal fee waiver, €2.6 million;

- €3.5 million towards the refund of NCT test fees and Motor Tax for SPSV operators for a 12-month period from 1^stSeptember 2021 to 31st August 2022;

- €5.326 million for the eSPSV Grant Scheme