A FULLY electric Ennis Town Bus Service is scheduled to come into service in the first quarter of 2025.

A route test exercise was carried out late last year confirming the feasibility of the plan, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has told the Dáil.

He was responding to a question by Deputy Joe Carey who said the National Transport Authority (NTA) is involved in discussions with Clare County Council to secure land for the charging infrastructure and details will be outlined more precisely as the process is worked through.

“I have been told by Transport Minister Eamon Ryan that a route test exercise was carried out in December and, while final routes may change slightly for operational or coverage considerations, the exercise confirmed the feasibility of the current plan.

“This year, the NTA’s Service Planning team will be undertaking a number of steps including finalising the preferred routes as well as developing detailed stop and terminus designs.

“This will be done in collaboration with the Ennis 2040 team to take account of existing and future active travel and other schemes within the town,” Deputy Carey explained.

Responding to the Dáil question from the Clarecastle TD, Minister Ryan said that the NTA’s Service Planning team will be finalising all documents required to commence an operator procurement and the procurement of infrastructure installation and associated works towards the end of this year.

“The commencement of the operator procurement and infrastructure installation will be progressed as soon as possible following completion of the service planning process but will be subject to the requirements of the procurement processes.

“In the meantime, the NTA will work closely with all stakeholders to ensure that any measures and opportunities to shorten this timeline would be availed of, without compromising the integrity of the process, or the ability of both the NTA and Clare County Council to achieve their longer-term objectives for Ennis,” Minister Ryan concluded.