Eoin Ó Broin
Question:58. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Transport the measures his Department is taking to ensure bus services in Dublin are adequately staffed and buses run as scheduled. [55748/22]
View answerThursday, 10 November 2022
Questions (58)
Written answers
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.
Many operators in the sector are experiencing difficulties with staffing difficulties both as a result of COVID-19 related absences and also difficulties in recruiting new drivers.
The NTA is working with operators to try and mitigate the impacts through –
- Recruitment campaigns in recent months with significant numbers of additional drivers expected once required training and tests are completed and licenses issued by the RSA;
- NTA engagement with the RSA to try and expedite the testing and licence process for new bus drivers;
- NTA working with operators to minimise service cancellations, ensure first- and last- service buses operate and on low-frequency routes to avoid, where possible, the cancellation of consecutive low frequency services.
Further, as part of the NTA’s contractual performance monitoring system with operators, issues of poor reliability and punctuality performance can result in financial penalties for those operators.
Operators are forecasting significant improvements in reliability in the coming months, dependent on successful recruitment and retention of critical staff, in particular drivers. It is hoped that this will resolve the reliability issues currently being experienced.