Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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333. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he is satisfied at the adequacy of the service provided by a company (details supplied) particularly the S4 Route from the KCR Kimmage to UCD and back; and if he will make a statement on ghost buses. [17606/25]

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.

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 performance issues. 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.

We are seeing more people using public transport services and we are improving our fleet across the country but I am acutely aware that commuters need certainty around these services. I want to reassure the Deputy that the Department of Transport, the NTA, and the public transport operators are working to ensure the optimised deployment of resources across the network to best meet passenger demand.

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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334. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department's national vehicle and driver file database contains details on the numbers of new privately-owned buses registered each by the different sizes, capacity, or type of bus; and to provide this breakdown for 2024. [17613/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The table below shows the number of privately owned buses registered on the Department of Transport's National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF) in 2024, including those that were imported and registered in the same year. The data is categorised by Owner Type (Company, Garage or Private), Registration Type (New or Imported), Bus Type, and the number of seats.