CIÉ received €500m in public funds last year

State-owned public transport group CIÉ received €500 million in Government aid last year, according to figures published yesterday.

The group, parent of Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Irish Rail, earned a surplus of €9.8 million in 2014, an improvement on the €11.6 million that it lost the previous year.

The figures, published in its annual report, show that it received a total of €500 million from the Exchequer last year, 23 per cent more than the €408 million the group was given in 2013.

Of that, €212 million was to cover the cost of group companies’ public service obligations. This is money paid to maintain bus and rail routes that are not profitable, but which are considered necessary to operate for social reasons.

Public service grant

The public service grant was 7 per cent lower than the €226 million the three companies received in 2013.

However, Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe has pledged that it will not be cut further this year.

The remaining €288 million was for capital spending. Projects relating to the National Development Plan took up €205 million of this, while €77.4 million was spent on heavy rail maintenance under a Government programme dubbed the “infrastructure manager multi-annual contract”.

This is designed to ensure that safety standards are maintained on the Republic’s rail network.

Only the €212 million public service grant and the €77.4 million spent on rail maintenance were included in the group’s profit-and-loss account. Details on the rest of the spending are contained in the notes to the group’s accounts.

Invested

A spokesman said that some of the Government grants were excluded from the profit-and-loss account as the money was invested in the group’s assets.

During the year, Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority carried out a joint assessment of the spending needed for the current rail network.

The figures also show that the CIÉ group's pension scheme has a €701 million shortfall. It has submitted a plan to tackle this to the regulator, the Pensions Board, which has approved the scheme.

The group’s spokesman said its pension scheme was under constant review and that it had briefed the trade unions that represented its workers on this.

The figures show that Bus Éireann generated a profit of €5.1 million on its operations in 2014, while Irish Rail lost €2.2 million.

CIÉ delivered a €2.6 million surplus while Dublin Bus earned a net profit of €11.6 million.

Irish Rail received €117 million in public-service payments, while Dublin Bus received €60 million.

Overall, the group’s fare revenue and commercial income increased by €52.2 million to €817.1 million. Its activities generated €52.6 million in cash.