Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I welcome many aspects of this motion, in particular the call for privatised routes to be renationalised. This should start immediately with the pathetic excuse for a service being inflicted on ordinary people by Go-Ahead Ireland. I have been inundated with complaints from people who have been stranded as a result of the No. 175 bus not turning up. Go-Ahead Ireland was recently fined €500,000 by the NTA for failing to put on bus services at all - not because its services were late but because they did not turn up. These are services paid for by the State and advertised to people who rely on them to get to work, school and hospital appointments. The problem is that I doubt Go-Ahead is very bothered, given that its Irish subsidiary made €2.6 million in profit last year. Even after the fines, Go-Ahead Ireland is still raking it in at our expense.

Why is this taking place at Go-Ahead Ireland? I was talking to a worker only last night. He told me that the fundamental issue is that the company is skimping on staff. That is the logic of privatisation. It is a race to the bottom. The company is not investing properly in staff and, therefore, we are left with the problems we have. That worker told me the situation is due to get even worse with the new rosters that are being introduced. It will be even worse for the workers. He told me that the workers are describing the new roster as the divorce roster because it means that many workers will not be home for three or four weekends in a row to spend time with their families. Those rosters should be withdrawn. Go-Ahead Ireland should be put out of business, its routes renationalised and all its workers transferred to Dublin Bus.

We should not stop there. We need a properly integrated, planned out public transport system and not a hodgepodge of disconnected privatised services that do not join up with each other. We need massive State investment to extend public transport to the very many parts of the country that have no usable service. Not just the western rail corridor and the Navan line but the whole country needs a vastly improved public transport system.

I have a question as to why Sinn Féin did not call for free public transport in this motion. Three weeks ago, Malta became the second EU country, after Luxembourg, to make public transport free. Scotland brought in free bus travel for everyone under the age of 22 last January. More than 100 cities around the world already offer some form of free public transport. All the evidence shows that abolishing fares significantly increases public transport use, thereby reducing carbon emissions. Ask the pensioners in Ireland who avail of the free travel scheme if they would still use public transport to the same extent if it was not free or if instead they would drive more. We must get people out of cars and that means free, frequent, expanded and accessible public transport. I hope our amendment will be supported.

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