I thank the Deputy very much. I welcome his question, which is on an issue that is very topical at the moment. He is right that we need to give people confidence in the public transport system so they will continue to use it for all the very good reasons he spoke about. We are strongly committed in the Government to providing all citizens with reliable and sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, in budget 2026, the Department of Transport secured €940 million in funding for the public service obligation, PSO, and Transport for Ireland, TFI, Local Link services, and a further €980 million in public transport capital investment. Despite this investment, I know that customers can and do encounter issues concerning service cancellations and reliability. Bus cancellations can occur for a variety of reasons, such as issues with the availability of drivers and mechanics causing services not to run to schedule. The NTA has assured me that it is acutely aware of the importance of good-quality information being made available to customers regarding bus departure times and on-street displays. The TFI Live app aims to provide this information. The real-time information displayed on the TFI Live app and on the on-street signs is provided directly by the bus operator responsible for operating the service. The onus is on the transport operator to provide live disruption information if, for unforeseen circumstances, a bus is unable to complete part of its schedule. This information can be relayed to customers using the on-street displays and the TFI Live app. The NTA holds weekly meetings with operators to discuss performance, understand challenges and identify where improvements can be made. In instances where performance drops, financial penalties are rigorously applied. Where a bus does not operate due to circumstances within the operator’s control, a reduction is made in the amount due to the operator equivalent to the cost of operating the cancelled service. The contracts also provide for deductions to be made when punctuality and reliability targets are not met. In relation to the specific issue of vehicle location and tracking information, the NTA awarded Trapeze ITS the contract to develop and implement a next generation automatic vehicle location system for Ireland’s public transport buses. This centralised system will replace the existing fragmented automatic vehicle location systems and will offer better real-time information for passengers. It will enable two-way communication with drivers and monitor the performance of buses against their schedules. The system will also provide tools for service controllers to make interventions, such as curtailment or cancellation of services, and, importantly for customers, will generate the real-time passenger information used in information displays for the public. The next generation automatic vehicle location system project is a centralised, more modern, cloud-based AVL solution to be used by all PSO operators. It consolidates the existing five systems, which are up to 15 years old. This will bring advantages in terms of consistency of data across the operators. The system will be more robust and will have more modern bus control features that will assist bus operators to run services against schedule, providing accurate and reliable data for passengers on real-time displays. The first implementation of this new system in Waterford is due to go live in June and is currently in testing. The system will be rolled out to other operators during the course of 2026 and 2027, including Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Go-Ahead Ireland services.

Sentiment score: 0.22

I will go back to the NTA regarding the 73 bus service to seek the clarification the Deputy requires. There is no doubt about that. Further to the updates I provided earlier on the next generation automatic vehicle location system and practices by the NTA and bus operators to support a better real-time information system for passengers, I note that a number of actions have been taken that will help to address this issue. These actions include the replacement of older antennas on buses, with close to 800 to be replaced. GPS receiver boards on Dublin Bus services are in the process of being updated, with 300 buses updated to date and the balance to be updated in May of this year. Operational practice has also been modified to help address the issue. The NTA has developed a tool that can be used by Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland to monitor the efficiency of trip cancellation processes. This will help ensure real-time passenger information takes account of all cancellations as they arise. Finally, as I noted in my opening statement, the new system is planned to go ahead in Waterford in June and the roll-out to the other areas will be taking effect straight away after that, in the rest of 2026 into 2027. It will consolidate the five existing systems, some of which are 15 years old, into one central one. This will bring advantages in terms of consistency of the data that people will get from across all the operators. The system will be robust with more modern bus-control features that will assist the bus operators to run services against schedule and provide accurate and reliable data for passengers on real-time displays. If we have the system correct, the information will be live and people will know. We invest a huge amount of money in public transport but we want to make sure we are generating the confidence in the public so that they can use it.

Sentiment score: 0.25