Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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 such as driver recruitment.

I understand that many operators in the transport sector have experienced difficulties in recruiting new drivers. These issues are found across all types of operators both public and private. The National Transport Authority (NTA) have been working with operators to try and mitigate the impacts including running recruitment campaigns.

The NTA is in regular contact with bus operators, who are making every attempt to recruit more drivers so that all services can run as scheduled. Several operators have undertaken extensive driver recruitment campaigns in recent months with staff levels beginning to improve gradually, and additional drivers expected to become available once their required training and tests are complete and licences are issued by the Road Safety Authority (RSA). The NTA has engaged with the RSA to expedite the testing and licence issue process for new bus drivers. In addition the Authority has undertaken a national advertising campaign to attract bus drivers to the industry.

Further, my Department engaged with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) in Q4 2022 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.

As a result of this engagement, in December 2022 the Minister for DETE announced that changes had been made to the permit system to help ease the recruitment challenges being faced in the transport sector with the establishment of a quota of 1,500 employment permits for bus and coach drivers. These changes came into effect on the 16th of December 2022.