Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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299. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of driver recruitment at Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and a company (details supplied); if these companies will be equipped to deliver planned service expansion in 2023; if not, if timelines will be altered in this regard; if so, the details of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2397/23]

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.

In relation to driver recruitment, the NTA continues to meet with the bus operators, including Go-Ahead Ireland, regularly to review performance. Both operators and the NTA have taken a number of steps to try to mitigate the current driver shortages being experienced across the public transport network. These include:

- Running recruitment campaigns;

- Engaging with the RSA to expedite the testing and licence process;

- Reducing some service frequency;

- Delaying the introduction of phases of the BusConnects network redesign and;

- Reassigning resources to better match the demand.

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, in 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 engaged with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to secure changes to the employment permit system. A quota of 1,500 employment permits for bus and coach drivers from non-EU and non-EEA Countries has been established which will also help address the recruitment challenges being faced by the sector. The changes came into effect on 16th December 2022 and my Department engaged with all PSO operators, including Bus Éireann, and representatives from the commercial bus sector as part of this process.

It should be noted that driver recruitment has improved. For example, in December 2022, Dublin Bus reported that the company recruited 319 drivers since January 2022.

The NTA will continue to work with operators in this regard, and in light of their responsibility in this area, I have also forwarded the Deputy's question to the Authority for direct reply.  Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.