531. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Transport whether the National Transport Authority has plans to require bus operators to immediately publish service cancellations and significant delays through the TFI Live platform and on-street passenger information systems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62926/26]

532. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Transport whether he is aware of reports that Galway bus passengers are encountering instances whereby real-time passenger information displays and the TFI Live system fail to accurately reflect delays or cancellations; whether the National Transport Authority intends to mandate the provision of verified live GPS tracking data from bus operators; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62925/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 531 and 532 together.

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 planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including the development of related technology systems.

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's contracts with public transport operators have been strengthened in recent years, to incentivise operators to operate more reliable and punctual services, and they have also been investing in a new vehicle location system for the fleet to improve the reliability of the real time passenger information system.

In this regard 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 separate 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 pilot of the new NG-AVL solution commenced on the first of Bus Éireann’s Waterford bus services in early July. As part of this pilot, the new real-time feed was connected to NTA’s TFI Live app, meaning that for the pilot services the predicted arrival times are now being generated by the new solution and have been validated as being correct. The NTA and supplier teams will continue to monitor performance closely to ensure stability and identify if any improvements are required. Subject to the pilot continuing successfully the Authority will commence planning the next deployments in early 2027.

In light of the NTA’s responsibility in this area, I have forwarded the Deputy's specific question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.