Bus Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 February 2025

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Thursday, 6 February 2025

Questions (37)

James Geoghegan

Question:

37. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Transport if a report can be furnished from Go-Ahead Ireland bus service in relation to the S4 bus route, where the provider has acknowledged that this route has experienced service frequency issues, and if the report can detail the extent of those issues over the last number of months to today’s date; if he can request that this report includes precise data on the number of buses which were taken off the fleet on relevant affected days; if he agrees that the success of high frequency bus routes and growing passenger numbers is dependent upon buses actually showing up when they are supposed to; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3891/25]

Written answers

Minister for Transport

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.

Question No. 38 answered with Question No. 20.

Question No. 39 answered with Question No. 20.

Question No. 40 answered with Question No. 20.

Question No. 41 answered with Question No. 20.

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