Authority denies privatisation of public bus routes

The National Transport Authority has denied that the tendering out of 10% of public bus routes to private operators is “privatisation” as it will continue to have full control of how those services are delivered.

Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus drivers are to stage seven days of strikes next month over the tendering of the routes and a lack of guarantees over how it may impact on their terms and conditions.

Dublin Bus faces daily fines of €150,000 from the NTA for failure to provide services on those days, while Bus Éíreann is to be fined €80,000 per day.

The driver unions — Siptu and the National Bus and Rail Union — have repeatedly said the NTA move constitutes privatisation of services.

However, NTA said it is not privatisation as nothing is being sold; services are not being deregulated; control of services remains with it; fare revenue goes to NTA; and the operator is paid a fixed fee for providing the prescribed services.

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NTA chief executive Anne Graham said the vehicles; routes and stops; frequencies; fares; travel pass and Leap card features; and real-time passenger information will remain the same on the services which are tendered out. She also said NTA would have the right to withdraw the contract from a poorly performing supplier.

Ms Graham said Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann had enjoyed “direct award contracts” for the provision of bus services in Ireland, re receiving substantial public subsidy. She said that amounted to €90m in 2014 with an additional €90m in capital investment.

“Clearly we are obliged to ensure that the taxpayer is getting the best possible value for this considerable spend. By allowing 10% of these routes to be publicly tendered, we will have a good comparator to assess the value that the taxpayer is obtaining from the overall expenditure on subsidised bus services.”

Ms Graham said that if Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann do not secure the tenders, affected staff will be able to transfer to the winning contractor with the “same rights and obligations they had enjoyed with their previous employer”.

She said an expanding demand for public transport would mean a requirement for additional drivers in the two firms so the numbers of staff transferring would be kept to a minimum.

However, she did not give any guarantee over the terms and conditions of new staff that private contractors would take on to carry out the tendered routes.

Dermot O’Leary, the general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union, insisted that taking services from a public company and giving them to a private company “is one of the fundamental cornerstones associated with privatisation”.

On NTA calls for unions to return to talks with employers at the Labour Relations Commission, Mr O’Leary said it was the NTA, at the Government’s behest, which was “privatising” bus routes.

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