Miriam Hughes appointed Chairperson-Designate of Bus Éireann

Bus Éireann, Ireland’s national bus company, is pleased to announce that Miriam Hughes has been appointed Chairperson-Designate by Minister for Transport, Mr Eamon Ryan TD. Ms Hughes succeeds Aidan Murphy who served as Chairperson from 2014 until December 2021.

“I am very pleased to appoint Miriam Hughes as Chairperson-Designate of Bus Éireann. Her strategic, commercial and governance experience is highly relevant and will serve the company well. She has demonstrated her commitment through her contribution as a Director over the past three years. It is an exciting time to lead Bus Éireann as it introduces new zero and low emission vehicles to its fleet and has committed to a sustainability strategy which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half and increase passenger numbers by almost one-third by 2030. There has never been a more positive environment for investment in public transport and Bus Éireann has an important role to play in implementation of national policy. I wish Miriam well in her new role and thank Aidan Murphy for his commitment and dedication over many years."

Miriam Hughes was appointed to the Board of Bus Éireann in 2019. She is an independent strategic business consultant and a Chartered Director from the Institute of Directors. She was formerly CEO of one of Ireland’s largest communications groups, DDFH&B. She is a mentor on the Enterprise Ireland panel and a non-executive director at marketing agency Pluto. She served as chair of Barnardos Ireland, is a past president of the Marketing Institute of Ireland, past chair of the Advertisers Association of Ireland, past council member of Dublin Chamber, past board member of the Irish Hospice Foundation and a current council member for the Irish Management Institute.

Bus Éireann operates the most extensive and varied public transport network in Ireland. It employs 2,700 people at 17 depots located throughout the country and in 2019 carried 89 million passengers.

The company operates the city services of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, town services in Athlone, Balbriggan, Drogheda, Dundalk, Navan and Sligo, and rural and regional services, all under Public Service Obligation contract with the National Transport Authority. Bus Éireann runs a commercial business, Expressway, on 14 intercity and interregional routes and operates the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department of Education, transporting 122,000 children every school day.

ENDS

Note to Editors

Ms Hughes has been appointed for a five year term, following a competitive process managed by the Public Appointments Service. Her appointment is subject to ratification by the Oireachtas Committee on Transport.

For information:

Bus Éireann

Elizabeth Headon

087 753 6520

elizabeth.headon@buseireann.ie