Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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70. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the impact on students and workers of scheduled bus services being cancelled without notice, who then have to pay substantial amounts on taxis to get to school or work; if he will investigate the failure of a transport operator (details supplied) to provide a regular reliable service which is causing significant problems for public transport users who require a consistent, reliable service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46720/22]

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; however, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally and for the scheduling and timetabling of these services in conjunction with the relevant transport operators.

The performance of all public transport operators is monitored by the NTA as part of the contractual arrangements in place between it and the operators. These contractual arrangements allow for not just the monitoring of performance by the NTA and the publication by it of annual performance reports, but importantly, the contracts also allow for the imposition of financial penalties where performance does not meet the required standard.

It is the case that operators in the public transport sector are experiencing difficulties with staffing both as a result of COVID-19 related absences and also difficulties in recruiting new drivers; however, it is also the case that Go-Ahead Ireland is experiencing higher than normal levels of Covid-related staff absences at present resulting in a knock-on effect on service delivery with some services not operating as scheduled.

As part of the NTA’s performance monitoring system poor reliability and punctuality performance does result in financial penalties. I am informed that these matters will be discussed between the NTA and Go-Ahead Ireland at their forthcoming quarterly review meeting.

The NTA formally meets Go-Ahead Ireland on a weekly basis to review performance, associated customer feedback and driver recovery plans and will continue to monitor and engage closely with the operator in an effort to improve the situation.

Operators are forecasting improvements in reliability in the coming months, dependent on successful recruitment and retention of critical staff, in particular drivers, and it is hoped that this will help to resolve to current reliability issues being experienced.