Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State’s response, but it is important to get those stakeholders together as quickly as we can because I believe it is resolvable. From my point of view, it is about the people who need the service and the transport. As I said, an older man who had been using the services for 20 years was told, all of a sudden, that he no longer had transport. He cannot physically get onto public transport.

I welcome this response. It should be done in the next week or two to address the short-term and long-term issues. Securing drivers seems to be a big issue even in Bus Éireann and other bus companies. When I was talking to the manager of the transport sector, a guy in private transport was also there who said that he has 48 buses but was only operating 32 now because he does not have the staff. They have not been able to get people in to take up those jobs. There has to be a logical and planned approach to dealing with this issue. When will the Minister of State get that pulled together?

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