Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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228. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of retired Dublin Bus stock that was sold to a company (details supplied), in 2023 and 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65921/25]

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. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including the provision and upgrade of public bus fleets.

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 working days.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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229. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the specific details of the way in which the pilot for the new automatic vehicle location system on bus services will work; if geographical areas will be included in the pilot; if so, whether the greater Blanchardstown area can be considered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65940/25]

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. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including the provision of Next Generation Automatic Vehicle location system.

As Deputy may be aware, the NTA awarded a contract to implement and support a National Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system for all Public Service Obligation (PSO) buses to Trapeze, a specialist transport systems company, which will enable the NTA to consolidate several existing and disparate bus AVL systems into one central system to be used by all PSO bus operators in Ireland, and which has expansion capacity to meet the growing demand for public transport in Ireland.

The project is well underway and a critical enabler for this project, preparatory works on the bus fleet nationwide to re-wire the buses so that they are ready for installation of the new AVL equipment, has advanced. To date more than 700 buses have been retrofitted with the new wiring arrangements to allow easy fitment of the new kit.

The next phase is to commence the system testing of the solution. End-to-end testing of the hardware and software solution to be deployed is a critical activity that must be successfully completed with all defects resolved in order for NTA to be confident that the solution is fully functional and robust before it can be installed on bus.

Subject to the systems successfully passing the detailed testing phases, a pilot implementation will commence late this year and assuming no issues are found, full rollout will commence in 2026 and will complete early 2027. In total approx. 1,800 buses nationwide will have to have the new system installed on them.

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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230. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 224 of 25 March, 417 of 29 April and 216 of 1 July 2025, for an update on improvements made in 2025 in communicating cancelled bus services, as per the details and assurances made by the NTA in response to same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65941/25]

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 want to reassure the Deputy that as part of my regular engagement, I met with the NTA last week to discuss a range of public transport matters, including the recent performance issues. I had also previously met with the NTA specifically on the issue of 'cancelled bus services', and they fully acknowledge that an inadequate level of service has been provided on certain routes in recent months, and they have been working closely with the operators to rectify the situation.

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. The NTA are also investing in a new vehicle location system for the fleet which will improve the reliability of the real time passenger information system. They continue to engage with operators to enhance service reliability and ensure continuous improvement.

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.