John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister of State indicate what measures have been taken to address the serious mess that has developed in my constituency over the past three and half years, since the privatisation of a number of routes that were formerly operated by Dublin Bus? This followed the privatisation of three particular routes: Nos. 45A, 184 and 185. At a time where we are supposed to be encouraging people and enticing them to use more public transport, a poor service is being provided by Go-Ahead Ireland in my constituency. This has resulted in many people being left abandoned at bus stops because of services being cancelled at late notice. This has developed into a situation where people will not use those routes because they cannot rely on them. People are now resorting back to using their cars. To say that privatisation has been a fiasco is an understatement at this stage.

The Minister of State will be aware that Go-Ahead Ireland is receiving substantial State funding to provide this service, which is completely failing. I have consistently raised this issue with the Minister for Transport and I have repeatedly met with the National Transport Authority, NTA. The Minister has said that it is not his responsibility and that is up to the NTA. I have also met with Go-Ahead Ireland. The NTA and Go-Ahead Ireland are hiding behind a false narrative that it is down to staffing issues as a direct result of Covid. Before Covid the excuse was that there was a bedding-in period but over the past two years, right up to this moment in time, the excuse for staff being missing is down to Covid, or whatever. Clearly, there are staffing issues within Go-Ahead Ireland that is resulting in the poor service being provided. This is fundamentally down to the pay and conditions offered to drivers. Drivers are being trained and then quickly leaving Go-Ahead Ireland, which has resulted in a continuous recruitment campaign by Go-Ahead Ireland to recruit new drivers and train them in, only for them to subsequently move on.

It seems there is this perpetual failure to provide a public service for bus users and potential bus users, certainly in my constituency. It has now got to a point where it is unsustainable. People are now refusing to use public transport. People are being left, at very short notice, standing waiting on a bus that does not show. Last week, there were a couple of incidents where children and teenagers were left after the final two buses on the No. 185 route never showed up. Those young people had to walk from Bray and to Enniskerry, along the 21 Bends, which is a very dangerous stretch of road. The situation is now putting at risk the safety of members of the public. The situation is counterproductive to the stated policy of the Government to encourage more people to use public transport.

Will the Minister of State indicate what action is being taken to ensure that a better service is being provided? As far as I can see, the time for Go-Ahead Ireland is well past. We now need to take these routes back into public control to ensure a better and more reliable service is provided.

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