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

We all know that the housing shortage is creating a void in respect of the number of workers who are available in essential services like education and health, but this is also true in transport. Thankfully, recently, the Minister for Transport did a U-turn on the insane idea that we need 1 million e-vehicle cars on the road to replace 1 million petrol cars, with a much greater concentration on public transport.

How does the Government propose to deal with both the question of recruitment and retention of bus drivers in Bus Éireann, in Dublin Bus and in Go-Ahead Ireland because all three companies are having very significant difficulty in retaining bus drivers? The main reasons for this, and this has been shown through their unions and in surveys, is because the companies start the drivers on much lower pay compared to their more senior colleagues. The second reason is because the shifts have become very onerous. They have very little work-life balance and time with their families and it does not suit young workers. Will the Government sit down with the National Transport Authority, NTA, and look at the model where companies have to compete with each others for contracts in public transport, which are effectively driving a race to the bottom and causing us to lose, and not to retain, hundreds of young drivers.

See this speech in context