James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chair for allowing me to join the committee today. As he said, I am not normally a member of this committee but I am joining it because I have, like my colleague, Deputy Cronin, some local issues to raise.

Before I get on to those, it might be of interest to Mr. Kent, who talked about parking in the bus stops, that outside of what I am doing here today I chair the justice committee, which is where I normally am at this time on Tuesday afternoon. We prepared a report on parking enforcement, which has been laid before the Houses, etc. Hopefully, the Garda is paying attention as well. The report essentially states that we should not tolerate this, be it a van on Capel Street or a truck, a car or whatever else at a bus stop. Some people see it as a minor infringement but it is very serious and can lead to accidents and to impaired mobility for people trying to use public transport, etc. We are working on that. Maybe this committee, if it is doing a report after this engagement, might want to make reference to the justice committee report on that very issue. It may be of some assistance.

On local issues, I represent north Kildare. I heard my colleague talking about Dublin Bus serving Kilcock and, indeed, it used to. Bizarrely, it also serves Ballymore Eustace and Blessington, but it does not serve Naas, Clane, Straffan or any of the places in between. It goes to parts of the north east of the constituency and to parts in the south east of it but it misses all the bits in between. They are all of a similar radius from the city centre but, I think, there are historical issues. The witnesses might comment on that. I do not think there is any chance of getting Dublin Bus to go to Naas or Sallins any time soon but if there is, I look forward to hearing all about the details.

On the buses that serve us at present, I agree with the points made about the 120, 126 and 115. I use some of those services. I use the 120 and 126 occasionally, as do members of my family. It is fair to say the 120 has greatly improved. I have used it and found it to be a great bus. I have flown up and down here. Going home in the evenings, particularly after late sittings here, it is very good. The drivers are friendly and efficient. My experiences have been very positive, but my daughter has told me that she went to get the bus but it did not turn up. She had to come home, wait half an hour and go back and get another one. That happens, and I have direct experience of it as well as getting multiple emails and calls from constituents. Members of my family have been caught out by that. It is improving but it is not there yet. It is one to keep an eye on. The same goes for the 126 and, as my colleague mentioned, the 115.

I would invite the witnesses to make a note of that and to comment on it when they respond. When I raised it over the past four or five years, certainly post-Covid, the point was made that driver shortages were an issue and that it was hard to get drivers. The service industry, including public transport, changed after Covid and it was difficult to get people back to work in lots of different roles. People had found new skills and opportunities. Is that still an issue? Is that being tackled? Has that righted itself or where are we on that as an industry?

My next point is one for Dublin Bus. It is also a local point. In Leixlip, there was a direct service that served Confey - the 66B. It used come down the hill and go to the city centre and back again. There is quite a significant population living in Confey. It is almost a small village of its own within Leixlip. It has quite an ageing population who would have good use of the bus service. As part of BusConnects, one gets a bus down the hill, changes in the village centre and then goes into town. That is okay. I understand the logic behind it. I met with the Dublin Bus principals when Dublin Bus was rolling out BusConnects.

I suppose the preference locally would be a direct link from Confey to town, as was there historically. I do not know if that is something that could be looked at it. It would be very welcome if there was.

I see Mr. J.J. Kavanagh here today. I do not know if he is part of the group, so I do not know if it is fair to put the question to him directly. However, since he is in the room, I will ask him about one option. By the way, I want to thank J.J. Kavanagh and Sons for responding to my representations at local level on many occasions, including one around Dublin Airport asking why the bus was not running. He told me very frankly that is was not cost-effective anymore, and that bus is now cancelled. I appreciate Mr. Kavanagh's candour at least, even though I had to wait a little bit longer to get my bus home from that particular trip.

The 139 is a very good service, and one that I greatly welcome. It was a TFI service rolled out and now operated by J.J. Kavanagh and Sons. I have been given feedback that there was a new timetable rolled out about a month or two ago. There was great fanfare and it was welcomed. People are saying it is not operating yet. I do not know if that is correct or not. Mr. Kavanagh might tell me if it is actually in force yet. People are going down expecting to get buses on the new timetable and they are not there. They seem to have been told that it is on the old timetable. Mr. Kavanagh might clarify if the new timetable for the 139 has kicked in yet.

Still on local issues and the 139, there is no direct connection between two relatively major towns in the area, Maynooth and Straffan. You can get a bus from Clane to Maynooth for a coffee and into town - the 139 does that - or you can get a 120 that comes out through Celbridge, into Straffan, and it I think it goes off down to Edenderry eventually. However, you cannot actually get from Straffan to Maynooth. Straffan is really a satellite town, and a large village or a small town, while Maynooth is the hub town beside it. However, there is no public transport. There is a university in Maynooth, among other things, so there are lots of reasons we should connect the two even though they are only a few miles apart. As far as I can see, and it has been raised with me, there is no direct bus or public transport service between those.

I will make my last point because I want to give everyone a chance to come back in. It may be outside of the witnesses' control but I think individually and collectively they can feed into it. Regarding the TFI app, I use that regularly. I would look to see if a bus is coming, and I use the train service quite a lot as well. There is a phenomenon of ghost buses. It says the bus is coming for a long time, and then eventually the app falls away. I have a background in software - years ago, and long before this current job. What it has been saying in recent times is not that a service is on the way but that it is scheduled. It is not wrong. It is scheduled but it just has not turned up. The app is telling you correctly that there is a service scheduled in three minutes but 33 minutes later there is no bus, despite the fact that one was scheduled. Maybe the status could say "due", "imminent", "delayed" or "cancelled", or something else that would be of more help to someone on the ground. To know if it is scheduled, we could just get the timetable, and a PDF on your phone in your pocket. If it is a live app, it should be giving you live updates reflecting the reality on the ground.

I know there were a few questions there. I know I have jumped around a bit. If the witnesses want clarity, I am happy to give it but I want to give them a few minutes for the answers too.