- National Transport Authority
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National Transport Authority Type State Agency of the Department of Transport. Industry Public transport Founded 1 December 2009 Headquarters Dublin, Republic of Ireland Area served Greater Dublin Area (transport authority), Republic of Ireland (public transport licencing functions). Parent Department of Transport Website NTA website The National Transport Authority (Irish: Údarás Náisiúnta Iompair) is the transport authority for Greater Dublin and the public transport licencing agency for the entire Republic of Ireland. It was established under the provisions of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 and the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, on 1 December 2009. Part 2 of this Act having been brought into operation by S.I. 459 of 2009, the Dublin Transport Authority (Part 2)(Establishment Day) Order 2009.
The NTA took over certain functions from the Department of Transport and the entire role of the Dublin Transportation Office. It is also to take over the functions of the Commission for Taxi Regulation when Part 4 of the Public Transport Regulation Act is commenced, but this has yet to occur.
Contents
Organisation
The act establishing the NTA made it a a body corporate consisting of the City Manager of Dublin City Council, the Chief Executive and a member of the senior management team, and a chairman and six other members appointed by the Minister for Transport. The NTA will have charge of public transport in the Greater Dublin Area, which is defined legally for the first time in the Act. The counties covered will be the City of Dublin, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, South Dublin, Fingal, County Wicklow. County Kildare, and County Meath. An advisory council, consisting of local government officials and councillors, representatives of An Garda Siochana, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and business and community interests, will also be established. The Public Transport Regulation Act retains this structure, though it provides that its functional area in respect of the additional functions that it is granted under that Bill its functional area will be the entire state.
The NTA has subsumed the activities of the current Dublin Transportation Office, which was dissolved on 1 December 2009. John Fitzgerald is chairperson of the NTA, and Gerry Murphy is chief executive officer.
Services
The NTA will have charge of most public transport within Greater Dublin. Unlike authorities such as Transport for London and RATP it will not normally operate services itself, although there is provision for it to do so in certain circumstances. It will have contracts with transport operators, including Coras Iompair Éireann and the Railway Procurement Agency and private operators. Although the RPA was originally intended, like the DTO, to be subsumed into the NTA, a lobbying campaign by the RPA led to it retaining its separate status. The CIE companies (Dublin Bus, Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann) will retain their existing services but they will now subject to direction from the NTA within Greater Dublin.
A major re-branding of services is due to take place in a yet unknown colour.[1]
Expanded remit
The name of the body, under the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, was originally to be Dublin Transport Authority. However, In the brought forward Budget announced in October 2008, the Government announced a major review of public service bodies, with bodies being amalgamated where it was felt savings could be made.[2] A separate national transport regulator was originally intended to be set up to licence public transport, but an annex to Budget 2009 revealed that the Government intended to incorporate both this body and the Commission for Taxi Regulation into the DTA.[2] In an interview in The Irish Times on 14 January 2009, the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, confirmed this would indeed be the case.
On 23 January 2009, the Public Appointments Service advertised the position of chief executive officer of the DTA.[3] The advertisement noted the Government's intention to "assign national responsibility to the DTA for bus market regulation and the procurement of public transport services under public service obligations" and for the DTA to take over the duties of the Commission for Taxi Regulation.
On 1 September 2009, former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald[disambiguation needed
] was appointed chairman designate of the DTA, with Gerry Murphy appointed chief executive designate.[4]On 8 September 2009, the Public Transport Regulation Bill 2009 was published. This gave it responsibility for licencing road passenger transport services throughout the State. It will also provide for the abolition of the Taxi Regulator and the transfer of its functions to the renamed National Transport Authority. This is in addition to its Dublin-specific functions granted under the DTA Act, which it will retain.
On 1 October 2009, the Minister announced that the Commission for Aviation Regulation would be merged with the new authority, with certain functions of the Irish Aviation Authority also to be transferred.[5] However, neither of these proposals actually made it into the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, which was promulgated on 27 November 2009.[6]
The Public Transport Regulation Act 2009 proposed to change the name of the organisation to the National Transport Authority.[7] and this was done with effect from the establishment day of the Authority under the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009 (National Transport Authority) (Appointed Day) Order 2009,
References
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/dublin-bus-feeling-offcolour-yet-again-1353864.html
- ^ a b http://www.budget.gov.ie/2009/downloads/AnnexDRationalisationOfStateAgencies.pdf
- ^ http://www.publicjobs.ie/cand/JobDetails_eng.asp?JobID=3868&hdnGUID=&hdnJobID=2452&sgDest=JOBLISTING
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2009/0902/1224253656950.html
- ^ http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=131
- ^ http://www.president.ie/index.php?section=24&lang=eng
- ^ http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2009/5909/B5909S.pdf
External links
- The Seanad Éireann Dublin Transport Authority Bill 2008
- Official site - Dublin Transportation Office
- Official site - Dublin Bus
- Official site - Iarnród Éireann
- Official site - Luas
- Official site - RPA
Transport in Dublin Air Rail Tram*Road Bus corridorsR101 · R102 · R103 · R104 · R105 · R106 · R107 · R108 · R109 · R110 · R111 · R112 · R113 · R114 · R115 · R116 · R117 · R118 · R119 · R120 · R121 · R122 · R123 · R124 · R125 · R126 · R127 · R128 · R129 · R130 · R131 · R132 · R133 · R134 · R135 · R136 · R148 · R156 · R403 · R445 · R761 · R810 · R817 · R821 · R822 · R824 · R825 · R826OtherWater CanalsPortsAgencies National Roads Authority · National Transport Authority · Public transport operators in Dublin · Railway Procurement Agency*=Tram systems no longer run. Information in parentheses shows the operator(s)Categories:- Córas Iompair Éireann
- Bus transport in the Republic of Ireland
- Transport companies of the Republic of Ireland
- Transport in County Dublin
- Local government in County Dublin
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