John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Dublin Bus is not perfect but it is our Dublin Bus. It has emerged from the last decade as a modern, distinct and instantly recognisable part of the fabric of life in our capital. In my experience, Dubliners have a great affection for and loyalty to the company, which they own. It is a profitable and dynamic public company and in recent years its revenue has been steadily and dramatically increasing while its PSO subsidy has been decreasing. In recent times, I have become concerned about the concessions Dublin Bus has been forced to make in the wake of Luas cross city. For example, 30% of its routes through College Green have been redirected to facilitate Luas cross city. In facilitating these necessary changes, Dublin Bus illustrated its flexibility as a public transport provider. No account has been taken of how Dublin Bus commuters might have been discommoded as a result.

Last year a number of Dublin Bus routes were contracted out following a tender to the UK firm Go-Ahead. In tandem, the National Transport Authority is using this opportunity of a new service provider to roll out a new public bus brand called Transport for Ireland. The new brand will also cover all new additions to the Dublin Bus fleet from 2019 onwards guaranteeing the disappearance of the iconic Dublin Bus brand. No one asked the millions of Dublin commuters who rely on this service about this. The decision to erase Dublin Bus from the public transport map is simply not worthy of our National Transport Authority. The Dublin Bus brand is worth defending and fighting for. It is a brand that is well recognised. It is an identifying mark for customers and a proud symbol for its employees. Its livery and logo was developed in direct consultation with several disability transport users' groups, including bus service users with a range of visual and intellectual impairments. I also have concerns regarding the possibility this poses for future privatisation of the capital's public bus service. With one universal livery or brand, commuters will never know that more and more of their bus service is being contracted out to private providers. I am also concerned that new employees of the contracting companies will not enjoy the same pay and conditions as Dublin Bus employees. In response to me about workers' pay and conditions at Go-Ahead and whether they would be the same as those employed by Dublin Bus, the CEO of the NTA responded that while they understood it will be the case, the specific arrangements are a matter for Go-Ahead and its staff.

I am old-fashioned. I believe in public service and that with the right management, a public service company can build a dynamic service and corporate image and can motivate its staff to achieve the kind of results stereotypically associated with the private sector. Dublin Bus is one such company. In addition, the provision of permanent, reasonably paid jobs and conditions of employment opens up so many other opportunities to employees, such as home ownership and a secure future. This new brand, Transport for Ireland, could ultimately become a means of seamlessly and invisibly transitioning towards greater privatisation of services. There is the issue of accountability. Commuters ought to be able to recognise instantly who their service provider is. It is possible for the NTA to incorporate its new brand while not eliminating the Dublin Bus brand. The Dublin Bus brand is strongly Dublin-focused. The new NTA brand, Transport for Ireland, aside from being slavishly borrowed from Transport for London, in Dublin terms is anaemic and means nothing at all. The idea of a common livery or brand, also borrowed from London, equally makes no sense. The new brand proposed by the NTA speaks nothing to Dublin or Dubliners unlike the strong Dublin Bus brand which uses the castle icon and strong Dublin colours alongside a vibrant yellow that alerts commuters well in advance that their bus is arriving. Dublin Bus belongs in a real way to Dublin. It is very much part of the fabric of Dublin and not the NTA. It is an independent State company. It is time to defend this great company and the great service it provides. On this side of the House we will not stand by and watch it erased from the public eye and inevitably from public consciousness.

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