Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to address several issues that are not central to the question of antisocial behaviour but are central not only to urban spaces in Dublin but to all urban spaces. There are wide issues regarding how we develop our cities and the spaces where people live. If we take Dublin 8 as an example, walking through it we would barely recognise the Coombe or the Liberties because the planners have had it their way. All of the big developments that have taken place and that are smothering the area are built for tourism and student accommodation. They are not for local people to live in but for money to flow through the area. This is precisely what I believe is at the heart of the planners and those who think about Dublin and other cities and how they will progress them. It is about getting the money from tourism and foreign students who have plenty of money to pay for dear accommodation and getting them spending.

There is another part of city life and this is the people who live in it: the children, old people and people who grew up there. They have very limited, if any, space in which to play, participate in sports, hang out together or sit in parks and squares. If they do have parks and squares, they are filthy. They do not have public toilets and they do not have proper seating. When we disrespect the population like this, we, in turn, get the disrespect back in spades.

The issue I want to focus on more than anything else is public transport. We are going through a period when we urgently need to move to free, frequent public transport to deal with the climate catastrophe and the cost-of-living crisis. What we are getting instead is the plan around BusConnects. I agree with the improved services and getting more linked services throughout the city and more night-time 24-7 services, but they are being pushed through when there is a severe staffing shortage. Throughout Dublin, particularly in the south central area where three or four new spines have been opened recently, we are suffering from a mass shortage of public transport. If we want people to feel safe in our city, especially vulnerable people, people with disabilities, women and elderly people, providing them with a reliable safe public transport system is crucial. How will they live and move around the city if they cannot depend on this? At the moment we cannot do so.

I will use as an example the 79 bus route. It is a famous route about which poetry and songs have been written. It goes through all of the little estates in Ballyfermot. Recently, it was taken out and two G spines have been put in its place. They go through west Dublin from Spencer Dock practically into Kildare. They are meant to run every ten minutes and they are meant to run all night. This is all great but it does not happen. The alternative that was provided for the 70 bus, the so-called 60 route, has not shown up. I have had answers from Dublin Bus on this as recently as today. At crucial times in the mornings when people are trying to get to school and work and in the evenings when they are trying to get home, the service has failed. It is getting worse all the time.

We had debates with BusConnects on whether it could delay the introduction of the G spine and the change in the routes and whether more frequency could be given to the estates in Ballyfermot. We were told it will have to proceed and the plan will be going ahead. This is despite acknowledging to us that the services were 150 drivers short. Go-Ahead does not have as much of the service but proportionately it is equally short of drivers. We ask why because the companies do good recruitment campaigns. They do recruit but they cannot retain workers. There is a plethora of reasons for this. The crucial one is the conditions for workers who drive buses. Long and antisocial shifts do not allow for a decent work-life balance. They also start on unequal pay. People have to be in the job at least four to six years before they begin to catch up with the senior drivers who do the same job and earn a different rate of pay. This has to end.

The idea we should adopt the neoliberal approach of attempting to privatise a vital public service by introducing competition that drives a race to the bottom and pushes down the pay and conditions of those who work in it is leaving us short staffed. It is leaving us short staffed in a serious way so that we cannot deliver a safe public transport system. This is related to antisocial behaviour and how people live in the city. This ideology for how live in our cities has to be removed. It is not all about money. It is also about a quality of life. It is about communities and people. It is about those who work for us and deliver these services in our city.

Following this debate, if we get the basics right and provide decent public spaces with public toilets, clean up areas, provide play areas, provide places that are safe and inviting and provide public transport that is safe and inviting, we can deal with many of the problems that have given rise to this debate in the first place. If we do not do this, we will leave behind many people in this city in terms of supporting whatever initiatives we may need to take in future to deal with the transport and climate crisis.

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