Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the actions that are being taken to ensure that a private bus operator (details supplied) meets its obligations of providing a reliable service on the N6 route in north Dublin; what action or penalties will be taken if the operator continues to fail to meet its obligations on this and other routes; if he plans to review or reverse the privatisation of bus routes in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3629/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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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 this case Go Ahead.

The performance of all public transport operators is monitored by the NTA as part of the contractual arrangements in place between it and the operators. These contractual arrangements allow for not just the monitoring of performance by the NTA and the publication by it of annual performance reports, but importantly, the contracts also allow for the imposition of financial penalties where performance does not meet the required standard.

In light of the NTA’s responsibility in this area, I am meeting the NTA next week and will be discussing this issue with them. We are seeing more people using public transport and we are improving our fleet across the country but commuters need certainty around these services.