Claims made by the National Bus and Railworkers’ Union about the National Transport Authority, and by inference about its management, staff and board, in the last 24 hours cannot go unchallenged.
The assertion made that NTA provides bonuses to the value of €500,000 to senior executives is quite simply untrue. NTA pays NO bonuses whatsoever to senior executives or anybody else for that matter.
NTA publishes its annual report and financial report, on our website, every year. Our finances are subject to scrutiny, not just from the NTA board, but also from the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport, and are independently audited and certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The description of the pension arrangements for NTA staff as ‘gold plated’ is wildly inaccurate and irresponsible. The pension arrangements that apply to NTA personnel are precisely the same as those that apply to every other Government Department and State agency.
The suggestion that NTA spends over €40 million on consultants and vanity projects does not stand up to scrutiny, unless of course one regards the purchase of 116 buses for Bus Éireann; the opening of the Phoenix Park Tunnel, the rolling out of the Leap Card App, and making Connolly Station wheelchair accessible as “vanity projects”.
The claim that NTA operates without responsibility or accountability is without substance. NTA is responsible directly to the Minister of Transport, Tourism and Sport and to the Oireachtas. NTA has appeared at the Oireachtas Transport Committee on two occasions in the last four months alone and attends all Oireachtas Committees upon invitation.