Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)
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97. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department has investigated the costs associated with bringing all private bus routes back into operation by publicly owned agencies such as Bus Éireann or Dublin Bus; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22795/25]

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 vast majority of Public Service Obligation (PSO) bus services are provided by State operators through what are known as direct award contracts. Remaining routes are run by operators awarded a contract following a competitive tendering process – sometimes those routes are operated by a State operator, sometimes by a private operator. This mix of contractual award processes is in accordance with the relevant EU and Irish regulatory framework.

The performance of all public transport operators is monitored by NTA as part of the contractual arrangements in place between it and the operators and performance reports are available to view on the NTA’s website.

The NTA 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.

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.