Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise with the Minister of State today the issue of public transport in Wicklow. It is one of the main issues people talk to me about. Constituents are being absolutely let down and failed by the Government's approach when it comes to the delivery of public transport. We could see no better or clearer example of that than the absolute chaos on the N11 every single morning. It is worse than it was before Covid-19. There are no longer any peaks on the N11. It is constantly one peak. It is always busy no matter what time one goes onto it.

However, it is not just the N11 where we can see the impacts of failure within Government policy when it comes to public transport provision. It is near impossible to get around Bray, Wicklow town, Greystones, Blessington and every single town at the moment with the level of cars trying to move around them. That is all because we do not have sufficient public transport.

The people in those cars who are making those 1 km journeys around their various towns in the county or those who are stuck on the N11 trying to get into work want to get public transport. The problem is that the public transport is either not there for them or it is not reliable. We have a situation in Wicklow, and it is seen across many parts of the country, where buses that are meant to show up do not show up, or when buses do show up, they are too full and drive past people who are waiting at stops. If people cannot guarantee that they are going to be able to get their bus and get into work, they are not going to be able to rely on it. People cannot continually go into their workplace and say, "I am sorry, but my bus did not show up." People need a reliable and regular service.

The people in Wicklow are not looking for the sun, moon and stars when it comes to public transport. They are looking for very basic public transport provision. They are looking for buses that show up and that will bring them directly to hospitals, such as the 145. There is no direct link now to St. Vincent's hospital from Bray. People are looking for buses that will pick up. We have a situation where a bus will do a drop in Blessington but will not pick people up. The exact same bus on its return journey will not pick people up at the same spot because of some contractual issue the National Transport Authority, NTA, has overseen. It is crazy kind of stuff. There are always problems with the 133 in Newtownmountkennedy. Despite it being raised by multiple people, we are not seeing solutions being put in place. In Greystones, the buses will leave the train station before the DART has arrived. People get the DART and come out of the station to see the bus heading off into the horizon because it has not waited for them. This is basic stuff. Extra carriages are needed on trains. The train coming from Wicklow to Greystones and into Dublin has three carriages when it is absolutely full to the brim every single morning. There is not a single bus link between Wicklow town and Greystones, which has the DART station in it. These are two big towns on the east coast and there is not a single bus link between them. What we are looking for is the Government to provide the absolute basic and then, hopefully, expand to a transformative solution when it comes to public transport. It has to get the basics right, however, and unfortunately, people in Wicklow are not seeing that.

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