Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy O'Rourke on this issue. I was over with the NTA this morning in Buswells Hotel and it was an issue we discussed. The difficulty in recruiting mechanics and retaining them in all aspects is clearly something that is causing a huge problem across the entire State. It is not just for buses, it is across everything. The car testing services are having the same problems. It is happening everywhere. There needs to be a recognition that we need to get people to come from wherever we can find them to be able to fill these vacancies because it is having a very negative impact on the service we can provide to the public, especially when it comes to our transport services. We heard Barry Kenny from Irish Rail this morning talking about recruiting people to drive trains. It seems that everywhere and for every critical skill we need in the country, we are simply having difficulty in getting them. I am sure the Minister of State will tell me this is a reflection of an economy that is going very well and has full employment. We know that. Nobody is disputing that but the reality is when children want to get to school and they cannot get a bus because we cannot get a driver for it, we have a problem. When we have people who cannot get to work in many parts of the country because there are scheduling problems because they cannot get drivers, and when the existing buses and the fleet cannot be serviced because we have not got mechanics to service them, we really have to do something to resolve that issue. It is time to recognise this. This particular aspect regarding mechanics for buses and heavy vehicles is an issue but there are more issues as well. There needs to be a review of that whole critical skills aspect of issuing permits for people to come to work in Ireland, and we need to do that quickly because we will run into serious problems in providing services for people if we do not.

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