Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is never tolerable if people miss a bus service, particularly if the operator is not delivering on its contract agreements in respect of regular services.

That is why we have the system of regulation and fines and of holding those companies to account. Despite all these problems, particularly regarding the difficulty in getting drivers, what we have seen in the past year is public transport numbers increase very significantly, beyond what they were before Covid. That is unusual by international comparison; most other countries have not seen that. I believe that the combination of the 20% and 60% reductions in fares and some of the priority measures we are only starting to put in place is starting to see these bus services really increase and expand.

We have a lot of work to do. It is critical that we get the BusConnects project through planning and that we start delivering it and, in the interim, look at other measures in Dublin city centre and elsewhere where we can reallocate road space in order that the buses get through. The best way of solving this problem is not just by having as many drivers as we can get but also by making sure the buses are not stuck in traffic and that is what we are committing to do.

See this speech in context