To ask the Minister for Infrastructure for her assessment of the impact arising from un-met October 2021 Monitoring Round bids for Translink.

At the October monitoring round, public transport Covid pressures of £17m and non-Covid pressures of £24m were unable to be funded, which is a major concern for both the board of Translink and my Department.

My officials are currently undertaking a rigorous contingency planning exercise to identify options to address the inescapable pressures that remain across the Department. Unless additional funding becomes available, though, it is inevitable that service reductions will be required, the detail of which will not be clear until the outcome of the contingency planning exercise is determined.