Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I enjoyed our guest speakers’ presentation and that of Dublin Bus, in particular, because I was struck by the fact that the advertisement it brought out for recruitment was very relevant. It showed all of these drivers being thanked and the slogan was to ask what other job could one do in which one is thanked hundreds of times a day. It is true, as Dublin is unique in that people do actually thank the drivers every time they complete a trip. I hope that that goodwill is not lost because of the current absolute debacle which has taken place on the streets.

I drove down the Ballyfermot Road and up Inchicore yesterday and the crowds at the bus stops were unbelievable. They were visibly angry and fed up. Many of them may have been facing being disciplined at work and so forth for being late. There is something very rotten going on here.

I address my questions to Ms Graham from the NTA. There is an expansion in BusConnects, which we all welcome. Night buses and buses with greater frequency are lovely but it is not happening. The NTA insisted on going ahead with that expansion in the knowledge that there were serious staff shortages.

Ms Graham’s colleague said earlier on that the NTA could not anticipate the problems with the running time but it did anticipate the serious staff shortages as we met BusConnects over the G spine No. 60 route, which is a complete joke. The 79 bus was taken out of lower Ballyfermot and the 60 bus was brought in, which allegedly comes once an hour but does not, and probably comes once every two hours. This is really hurting the local population. Elderly people cannot get to mass or to shops, nor can women with their children. This is very much damaging the relationship between Dublin Bus and the services around that area and it is not fair to them. It happened overnight in the knowledge, where Hugh Creegan told our committee that NTA was very aware of staff shortages and that implementing BusConnects in that atmosphere was completely wrong. I want to know from Ms Graham why the NTA insisted upon that.

I also want to make a larger point, which I am making more to the people around this table than just to Ms Graham or the NTA. At the core of this issue is the question of privatisation. If we were not forcing two companies to compete with each other in a tendering process that is often stressful, long, competitive and so forth; and forcing their drivers to work longer shifts in order for the companies to be competitive; with lower and very low wages in the Go-Ahead Ireland company; then we might be able to retain drivers. The question of recruitment is not the problem, it is one of retention. If one is asking drivers to work longer and more sustained shifts over longer periods of time for less and less money, then the company will lose them. I worked in Dublin Bus myself and my father was there for 40 years and it is a great company to work for but when you push something into competitive tendering for a process that leads to worse conditions, then you are looking at a race to the bottom. I argue and say to all of the established parties who screamed to open up the public services to privatisation that the chickens have come home to roost. It should never have happened. It is an essential public service and should be entirely in public hands.