Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Devlin provided a litany of buses that have been cancelled. Thankfully, Go-Ahead only operates one bus in our area, the N6, although many would say that one is enough. It does not seem to be able to fulfil the contract that has been given to it. That is significant. When a person is standing at a bus stop at 7.50 a.m., has to be in work for 9 a.m. and the first time a bus arrives at the stop is at 9.10 a.m. - nearly 55 minutes later - that person is already ten minutes late for work and will arrive in at 9.45 a.m. That is happening on a consistent basis.

The National Transport Authority, NTA, has issued fines to Go-Ahead, LUAS and Dublin Bus, amounting to nearly €5 million. That is welcome to send the signal that it is not acceptable for them to cancel bus services. However, nobody wants to hand out fines to transport companies. We want them to collect their passengers and to be able to deliver the services that they promised to deliver. Go-Ahead promised that it would have a service for local people on the N6 route. It told us its issue is staffing, and I understand that anybody can have staffing concerns. The real difficulty is that the new N6 replaces two previous routes, namely, the N6 and the N4, one which was operated by Dublin Bus and the other by Go-Ahead. The Dublin Bus service powers ahead past the interchange at Finglas village. Meanwhile, there are five or six buses left waiting by Go-Ahead in the middle of Finglas village, where it has located its new canteen. Not only is it not providing the service, it is also blocking up the village. There are many complaints from the local Tidy Towns group, disability activist groups and so on. There cannot be a bus depot in the middle of a village. It is just not safe for pedestrians or cyclists and it is not good for congestion. As I said, I know this is about drivers. However, a company should not tender for service if it is not able to provide it.

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