Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue and the Minister of State for being here. I will be sharing time with Deputy Kenny. I was prompted to submit this issue due to an unprecedented level of bus service cancellations in my county over recent weeks. It was particularly acute the week before last when approximately 20% of services on the busy 103 route serving Ashbourne and Ratoath were cancelled. Passengers were encouraged to avoid using the busy NX service from Navan and there was similar chaos on the 109 service from Kells and Dunshaughlin. There was outrage and outcry from the public and from the representatives and I am glad to say there has been some welcome improvement in recent days, although we are a long way off perfection. The mid-term was a help. Bus Éireann has commissioned private capacity to fill some of the gaps and there has been some internal outsourcing from the Broadstone depot to some of the regional depots of the scheduled maintenance of buses.

That is the issue I wish to raise with the Minister. When we asked Bus Éireann and the National Transport Authority, NTA, what was going on and what the problem was, one of the issues raised was the shortage of mechanics, and in Bus Éireann's case the shortage of heavy vehicle and bus mechanics. We have seen the advertisements and the ongoing recruitment campaign. One of the key asks from Bus Éireann was that heavy goods vehicle mechanics would be put on the critical skills list. Is this something the Minister of State is considering and which can be done?

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