Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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144. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the bus companies that were fined by the NTA due to the fact that they did not comply with their public service obligations in providing bus services; the location of the substandard services; the details of the fine in each case; if the NTA had to obtain his approval to impose these fines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57156/22]

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.

Further, as part of the NTA’s contractual performance monitoring system with the operators, issues of poor reliability and punctuality performance can result in financial penalties for those operators. The NTA, as the independent Transport Regulator, does not seek my approval for imposing these fines.

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