Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, for taking this matter. I am disappointed that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, was not able to make it. I have raised this issue previously, most recently with the Tánaiste in this Chamber in September and at committee meetings last year.

Specifically on the Go-Ahead bus service, my office is inundated with complaints from customers. It is not just the 63, 59, 45A, 111 or 75 routes in Dún Laoghaire; it is Go-Ahead bus services across the greater Dublin area. Just yesterday, for example, the 16.56 and the 17.38 services on the 18 route to Palmerstown were cancelled. On Monday, a woman was left to wait for more than an hour for the 17.05 service on the 175 route, which was cancelled. Another man was left waiting for more than an hour in Kilmacanogue because the 13.10, the 13.30 and the 13.50 bus services to Dún Laoghaire on the 45A route did not show up. When he contacted Go-Ahead, he was told that the 14.13 service was also being cancelled and that he would have to wait until 14.33. That is a wait of more than an hour and a half for a service that is meant to run every 20 minutes. It is completely unacceptable.

I could list a dozen more examples from this week alone. As I said, I am disappointed that the Minister is not here to take this matter. I wonder if he is aware of how bad the Go-Ahead bus service has become and the significant impact this is having on people’s lives, particularly those of his constituents in Dublin Bay South. My Fianna Fáil colleagues across Dublin and I will continue to raise this issue until we see a resolution and an improvement in the Go-Ahead bus service.

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