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

That is a very good idea. It makes perfect sense to do that, rather than having some casual labour being brought in for a route here or there and being let go again. Having an apprenticeship model as a career path is the way to go. Perhaps the Minister can point the NTA towards that because the driver shortage is across the board. I will share a few examples with the Minister. I have had multiple representations to my office over the past year. One example concerns a local business that has taken on a Ukrainian refugee, who has been placed in local accommodation with a family. The refugee is cycling to the nearest bus stop and then getting a bus to the beauty salon in which she has been employed. Unfortunately, the business is in the position of almost having to let her go because she cannot get to work on time. The business is doing its best to accommodate her. She is great and everything else is working, but she cannot get there on time. Another lady told me that she commutes home in the evening from Dublin. She feels very vulnerable standing at bus stops late at night in Dublin city centre. She cannot guarantee that the bus will arrive on time. She is waiting for the bus on the quays, sometimes for long periods. Indeed, she told me that she waited four hours one night for a bus to turn up. This is not a safe or sustainable situation. On a practical level, the real-time app that should tell people when the bus is late only flags it when the bus is already late. I experienced that myself this morning on the train. The real-time app only updates at the end. If the real-time bus app told passengers that it was late half an hour or an hour beforehand, they could stay in work or go for a coffee, rather than waiting and finding out what they already know.

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