Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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222. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on the estimated number of ‘Ghost buses’ in the Dublin 15 areas in a news report (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13410/25]

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.

I am very aware however, of the recent performance issues on certain routes operated by Go Ahead Ireland in the Greater Dublin Area.

The performance of all of these public transport operators is closely monitored by the NTA as part of the contractual arrangements in place between it and the operators.

I want to reassure the Deputy that I recently met with the NTA to discuss a range of public transport issues, including the recent performance issues. The NTA fully acknowledged that an inadequate level of service was provided on certain routes operated on their behalf by Go Ahead Ireland in recent weeks and they have been working closely with the operator to rectify the situation.

I understand that the performance issues arose due to a shortage of mechanics within the Go-Ahead operations. Upon the occurrence of the issue, various remedial measures were taken by Go-Ahead, including flying in additional mechanics from their UK operations in addition to obtaining additional support from other sources.

I have been advised that the situation has improved significantly and fleet availability within the Go-Ahead operations has now been restored to sufficient levels.

I understand that the company have an ongoing mechanics recruitment campaign recruitment campaign underway; are continuing to invest in an apprenticeship program to train new mechanics; and they are considering further recruitment initiatives to strengthen their mechanic resources.

Fundamentally the reliability of our bus services require the type of bus priority measures we will introduce under BusConnects. This year will see construction start on the first of the BusConnects Dublin Core Bus Corridors, with Liffey Valley and Ballymun/Finglas both expected to commence, and I look forward to your support Deputy, as we implement this transformative programme.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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223. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if bus services operated by Dublin Bus and (details suppled) in Dublin west will be fined for punctuality or reliability; and if the fines can be listed per each bus route. [13413/25]

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, Dublin Bus.

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 have forwarded the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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224. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport how each “ghost bus” and “disappearing buses” are monitored by the NTA; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13414/25]

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.

I understand that the data displayed in the TFI Live app is provided directly by the bus operators and that it is the responsibility of the operators to provide accurate vehicle location data relating to all their services. This data is provided by the on-bus AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) system which records the position of the bus as it proceeds on its route and generates predicted arrival times for each bus stop.

The NTA TFI Live app receives this data from the bus operator and publishes it in the app. The issue of a bus service being displayed in the app but not showing up at the stop is typically caused by the operator not cancelling that service in their AVL system if that service is not being operated (for example, due to a shortage of drivers). TFI Live cannot display a service as cancelled if it has not received the appropriate cancellation message from the operator and as a result it reverts to showing the timetabled time that the bus is due to arrive at a stop.

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 have referred the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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225. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport how “lost kilometres” are tracked on each bus to form the base; and the basis of reliable data for each bus route. [13415/25]

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.

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 have forwarded the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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226. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the budget invested into running bus services in Dublin west in each of the years 2020 – 2024 respectively, in tabular form. [13416/25]

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.

That being said, the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, in Budget 2025, the Department of Transport secured €658.442 million of funding for Public Service Obligation (PSO) and TFI Local Link services (an increase from €613.813 million in 2024).

This includes funding for the continuation of the 20% fare reduction on PSO services, the Young Adult Card on both PSO and commercial bus services, and the 90-minute fare until the end of 2025. Funding was also secured to extend free child fares on PSO Services to include those aged 5 to 8-years old, and to support the roll-out new and enhanced bus and rail services under programmes such as BusConnects and Connecting Ireland.

In light of the NTA’s responsibility in this area, I have forwarded the Deputy's request to the NTA for further information and direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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227. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the budget invested in the bus network in Dublin west to deal with capacity restraints in each of the years 2020 – 2024 respectively, in tabular form. [13417/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system, providing better bus services across our cities. It is the largest investment in the bus system in the history of the State, and is managed by the National Transport Authority (NTA).

In Dublin, the major infrastructure element of BusConnects comprises Core Bus Corridor schemes. To date, An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission to 11 of the 12 Core Bus Corridor applications, including the Blanchardstown scheme. However, legal proceedings are ongoing in relation to this scheme.

New bus services in Dublin are already being delivered as part of BusConnects, with the first 6 phases of the BusConnects Network Redesign rolling out since 2021, including the Northern Orbitals connecting Blanchardstown to the Point Village in 2022, and the Western Orbitals connecting Blanchardstown to Tallaght in 2023. The rollout of redesigned services for the entire network will continue in the coming years.

Overall, BusConnects will transform bus services in our cities, allowing passengers to travel more conveniently, quickly and sustainably, and I look forward to its full implementation.

Noting the NTA's responsibility in the matter, I have referred the Deputy's question to the NTA for a direct reply. Please contact my private office if you do not receive a reply within 10 days.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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228. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the percentage bus services increased in Dublin west in each of the years 2020 – 2024 respectively, in tabular form. [13418/25]

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 light of the NTA’s responsibility in this area, I have forwarded the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.