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

I raise the critical issue of commuter services, particularly to my constituency of Kildare North, although the problem is clearly pertinent to the whole country. According to census figures and from what I have seen living in and commuting from north Kildare for the past 15 years, the area has the largest percentage of its population commuting to work in Dublin of any area. Numerous problems have been caused by what I understand to be industrial relations difficulties at Irish Rail and Bus Éireann, with the possibility of further difficulties arising in related companies in the transport sector. Buses have failed to turn up at Kilcock, Clane and Prosperous. The routes involved are the 115 route, which services Kilcock, Enfield and Mullingar, and the 120 route, which services Clane, Prosperous and Edenderry. The 126 route to Naas is also starting to be impacted, with people being left at the side of the road unable to get to work.

8 o’clock

We are well aware of six planned service interruptions - six planned strike days - coming up over the next six weeks, many of which are at very critical times. Not only are these service interruptions becoming the norm, planned improvements that had been long sought and campaigned for and that were finally being arranged, such as the ten-minute DART, which, believe it or not, improves the Kildare timetable, and additional services through the Phoenix Park tunnel into the city centre are being affected. The Phoenix Park tunnel is a wonderful initiative but its popularity greatly exceeds the supply. It had been agreed with Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority, NTA, that extra services would be put on that route. People are struggling to fit into the carriages or to board in the morning. Extra services, carriages, rolling stock and times were to be added to that route. All of this is on hold with no end date because of what I understand to be industrial unrest across the unions. I am not sure if it is official. It may be in the case of Irish Rail but it may not be so with Dublin Bus, but things like timetable disruptions are not part of any official dispute as far as I am aware, yet management seems unable to roll out these improvements while these issues persist.

I have been asking this question for some time in the House, including yesterday on the Order of Business, so I wonder whether the Minister has gone out on strike himself in solidarity with the unions because I have not seen him being active about it. I imagine he will tell me that he is not going to get involved, so maybe that is a gesture of solidarity with the unions. Maybe the Minister is going on a go-slow himself. Will he clarify that for us?

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