Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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199. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his engagement with Bus Éireann and commercial bus operators to address the issue of securing drivers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62134/22]

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 National Transport Authority has worked collaboratively with all operators to try to mitigate the impact of the current driver shortages being experienced across the public transport network through:

- Recruitment campaigns in recent months;

- Engagement with the RSA to expedite 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.

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. My Department engaged with all PSO operators, including Bus Éireann, and representatives from the commercial bus sector as part of this process.