Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Ryan. Mr. Kent, in his opening statement, referred to the complete drop-off in service for a period. It was particularly bad for a number of weeks and led to considerable frustration across County Meath and the political spectrum. It affected several routes. Of particular relevance from my perspective are the 103 route and the NX to Navan. In fairness, they are high-frequency routes and very well used. We are all grateful for that, but the service went off a cliff edge. How did we end up in that situation? I have spoken to Bus Éireann’s helpful representatives in the area. There was a shortage of mechanics and fleet. Mr. Kent gave the figure of 95%. The scale of this problem was significant. Literally, hundreds of people were at bus stops at peak hours. There was a significant amount of frustration. Social media forums were alive with discussion of the issue. How did we end up in that situation? Corrective actions seem to have taken two and a half weeks or three weeks to implement. Why did it take so long? If the problem is a shortage of mechanics, where are we in that regard? What are the numbers? How short of mechanics is Bus Éireann? What is the pipeline? On a related issue that arose previously, how is Bus Éireann faring in respect of driver numbers?