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

The difficulty here is that there were issues with services, and the 120 in particular, pre-Covid and pre-Go-Ahead. In fact, it was considered by the regular commuters on the bus that the service would improve and there was a bit of excitement about it. I replied to some representations at the time saying that there was light at the end of the tunnel because a new operator was coming on board and the service would improve. That was the assumption. There is great frustration and disappointment that rather than improving, it has gone backwards. I am aware that the NTA had imposed penalties. Perhaps it will consider further penalties. I welcome that. If a carrot-and-stick approach needs to be applied, so be it. That is all well and good. However, it is almost a year on now. I appreciate that coming out of Covid there were difficulties with recruitment and all the rest of it, but we have been hearing about staff and driver issues for 12 months now. Surely, a properly organised, managed and regulated company can get to grips with such issues within 12 months, rather than having them persistently drag on. Perhaps, in my reply, I will give some examples of how people are affected. I appreciate that the NTA is in talks, but perhaps those talks need to be escalated and expedited, because it really needs to get this moving, in every sense.

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