Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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219. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on the repeated failures of Dublin Bus buses to turn up; if he agrees that driver shortages are the key factor driving it; and the action that he is taking to resolve it. [59477/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Unfortunately, many operators are experiencing staffing difficulties at present, both as a result of COVID-19 related absences and also in relation to recruiting new drivers.

The National Transport Authority has worked collaboratively with all operators to try to mitigate the impact of these staff shortages through:

- Recruitment campaigns in recent months;

- Engagement with the RSA to expediate the testing and licence process; and

- Working with operators to minimise service cancellations.

The NTA also uses all the contractual and regulatory powers available to it to measure, report on and seek to maintain and improve standards across all PSO public transport services. Further, instances where performance drops, financial penalties are rigorously applied unless the cause of the loss of performance is outside of the control of the operator, for example, high levels of Covid sickness absence. The NTA fined Dublin Bus c.€1.5m in the first six months of this year for failures in its services.

Furthermore, my Department is currently engaging with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in relation to work permits for bus drivers from non-EU and non-EEA Countries and the possible inclusion of bus drivers on the critical skills list due to the current driver shortages being experienced across the system.

The query raised in relation to Dublin Bus service issues, particularly the no. 61 route, is an operational matter for Dublin Bus. Therefore, I have referred this question to the company for direct response to the Deputy. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.