National Transport Authority

ad hoc

It was given statutory authority on December 1, 2009.

http://www.nationaltransport.ie/

Looks like the DTO site in new clothing.

godtabh

The DTO site is closed down and directs you to the new one

Victor

Legislation.

Victor

Legislation part 2.

antoinolachtnai

Have public service contracts been put in place with the CIE companies by the NTA?

Antoin.

sdanseo

Oh sweet jesus not yet another quango with a flashy website with no actual projects behind it. What are the odds that time will show this is just more red tape and less progress, again.

The name is good but they do sweet feck all that isn't already covered. Licensing bus routes and giving people online cycle routes? Please.

What we need is a centralised system to work Transport in this country.

HonalD

sdonn wrote: »

Oh sweet jesus not yet another quango with a flashy website with no actual projects behind it. What are the odds that time will show this is just more red tape and less progress, again.

The name is good but they do sweet feck all that isn't already covered. Licensing bus routes and giving people online cycle routes? Please.

What we need is a centralised system to work Transport in this country.

THis is exactly what you want - a centralised National Transport Authority! Now, let's see how it gets on, give it a year or so and see how things pan out.

markpb

HonalD wrote: »

THis is exactly what you want - a centralised National Transport Authority!

Wouldn't that be called the Department of Transport?

KC61

markpb wrote: »

Wouldn't that be called the Department of Transport?

Definitely not.

It needs to be managed by transport professionals rather than faceless civil servants who are more focussed on operators than customers.

markpb

KC61 wrote: »

Definitely not.

It needs to be managed by transport professionals rather than faceless civil servants who are more focussed on operators than customers.

I don't disagree that it needs that but I have no faith that it will be like that at all. I can't find the legislation but the committee for the originally proposed DTA was going to consist of:

- a chairperson appointed by the MoT
- Dublin City Manager
- an ordinary member to be specified by the chairperson with the consent of the Minister
- 6 ordinary members, from persons who in the opinion of the Minister have wide experience in relation to transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration.

So basically, 8 political appointees, 6 of whom the minister has to pretend know what they're doing. I'm sure the DCM is no longer a member so the NTA will have 9 political appointees.

icdg

markpb wrote: »

I'm sure the DCM is no longer a member so the NTA will have 9 political appointees.

Actually not only is the Dublin City Manager still a member, but the Greens are still proposing that any directly elected mayor of Dublin will chair the NTA! I'm sure that will go down well in the rest of the country.

The problem is that the NTA was always supposed to be the DTA. There was supposed to be a seperate Public Transport Regulator. When the budgetary crisis hit and it was decided to cull some quangos, they revised the Public Transport Regulation Bill to give the public transport regulator's powers to the DTA (renamed the NTA) but without any consequent reorganisation of the structure of the DTA. So the NTA's structure (and even its proposed advisory council) still reflects its DTA origins.

The result is that the NTA is a two-headed beast - it has one set of functions that only apply in Dublin and another set of functions which apply nationwide. Its staff have come from the DTO with a Dublin background. This body will find itself straining to look in both directions as it takes on more power (the next step will be to merge the Taxi Regulator into the NTA, this is provided for the in the PTR Act but not yet commenced).

AlekSmart

Points well made icdg...

The result is that the NTA is a two-headed beast - it has one set of functions that only apply in Dublin and another set of functions which apply nationwide. Its staff have come from the DTO with a Dublin background. This body will find itself straining to look in both directions as it takes on more power (the next step will be to merge the Taxi Regulator into the NTA, this is provided for the in the PTR Act but not yet commenced).

What we now have is in some ways a body full of contradictions and disparate goals.

I believe it to be virtually unworkable and I predict that it will not be too long before major differences appear on the surface.

Even if we accept the Taxi Regulator as a valid illustration,we are asked to accept that the OTR has largely taken control of it`s own remit and can therefore hand that completed remit over to the NTR to build upon.

Even the briefest interaction with Dublins Taxi business will illustrate that the OTR has singularly failed to address even the most basic issues surrounding the REGULATION of that industry.

Now we see a new body which will be forced to start afresh and doubtless with several major policy alterations en route.

I keep hearing the words of S. Manuel Melis,the poor unfortunate Spaniard that Seamus Brennan brought over from Madrid to give us his advice about Metro`s,Trams and associated stuff......

"Agree a Plan at the outset,keep it simple and do not deviate from that plan,then commence work and do not cease until the project is complete"

Somewhere,buried deep in that complex statement, lies a nugget of truth...one which we are blind to. :eek:

Sponge Bob

The DTO was supposed to be a repackage of the RPA with a new name and without the bad reputation and with bells and whistles added. The repackage was so that the RPA could finally deliver integrated ticketing.

I take it the RPA is to be the core of the NTA now so we are all doomed

Victor

DTO -> DTA + Taxi Regulator + Bus regulation from DoT = NTA

Sponge Bob

Victor wrote: »

DTO -> DTA + Taxi Regulator + Bus regulation from DoT = NTA

Ah DTO not DTA , lost in a Dublin quango soup I was

But as the DTA was stillborn it is more like

RPA via Hissy Fit > DTA > Oops what about those expensive projects > RPA again + DTO > DTA > Oops sounds like a bailout for Dublin > + Private Bus Route Licencing from DOT + Embarassing Failed Thatcherite Loony Taxi Regulator > NTA

No IE or BE or Dublin Bus , nice!

Hopefully this new misnamed DT(Entity?) > Decentralised to Trim and > Lose the Dublin City Manager as the only ex officio Board Member > Genuinely a pretend national agency

Victor

RPA has nothing to do with it the NTA (for the moment).

dowlingm

According to Sponge Bob the RPA causes smallpox.

Sponge Bob

Victor wrote: »

RPA has nothing to do with it the NTA (for the moment).

Eh well

2008 Act here

Section 102

102.—(1) The Minister shall, at the request of the Authority, dissolve
the DTO yadda yadda

at which point , section 110

110.—(1) (a) Each person who, immediately before the dissolution
day, was an employee of the DTO is, on that day, transferred
to and becomes an employee of the Authority.
(b) The RPA may, with the consent of the Minister, designate
for employment by the Authority any person employed
by the RPA and whose principal duties relate to a function
assigned or transferred to the Authority under this
Act, or to be so assigned or transferred to the Authority.

and Section 115 contains RPA functions to transfer to the DTA or NTA including setting of fares etc.

So a partial transfer at least Victor.

icdg

Someone in the RPA must have a direct line to the Minister, because they managed to survive. Apparently loud noises were made that changing the agency responsible for the project would cause untoward delays in building Metro North and the Luas extensions and the Minister took that onboard. It is a pity because the RPA was the agency most crying out to be incorporated into the DTA, because from the logical point of view it seems madness to have a regulator regulate another regulator (can you say that out loud ). Yet this essentially what has been put into effect.

The Taxi Regulator has done a lot of good work (if unpopular - mind you, if the Taxi Regulator had been popular with the taxi drivers, it would have been a sure sign that it wasn't doing its job) and I hope that this won't all be swept aside when it is incorporated into the NTA. This won't necessarily be the case - Transport for London manages to be both public transport provider and taxi regulator at once - but Transport for London is a organisation with seventy years of heritage wheras this is a new setup.

dereko1969

markpb wrote: »

I don't disagree that it needs that but I have no faith that it will be like that at all. I can't find the legislation but the committee for the originally proposed DTA was going to consist of:

- a chairperson appointed by the MoT
- Dublin City Manager
- an ordinary member to be specified by the chairperson with the consent of the Minister
- 6 ordinary members, from persons who in the opinion of the Minister have wide experience in relation to transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration.

So basically, 8 political appointees, 6 of whom the minister has to pretend know what they're doing. I'm sure the DCM is no longer a member so the NTA will have 9 political appointees.

Did you apply to join as an ordinary member?

murphaph

KC61 wrote: »

Definitely not.

It needs to be managed by transport professionals rather than faceless civil servants who are more focussed on operators than customers.

Apart from the civil bit that sounds like CIE!

Why is the RPA not being subsumed into this?

Why is the NRA not being subsumed into it too actually?

Why is CIE not being abolished, along with its overpaid board, leaving the daughter companies to deal directly with the NTA? What exactly will CIE do when the NTA begins operations?

What do the civil servants in the DoT do? What will they do when the DTA takes over bus licencing etc?

It is yet another quango which only absorbs a handful of staff from 2 other quangos while leaving the old untouchables, well, untouched. Arrrrgghgh.

antoinolachtnai

The RPA and NTA are basically projects agencies. They run projects, rather than ongoing operations. (This is not completely true I know, but for the most part it is.)

That is not to say there is no merit in the idea of merging the whole lot.

NTA also has a very important role in relation to public service contracts for the CIE companies. This effectively makes the NTA the main transport provider in Ireland.