Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of the poor performance issues on certain routes operated by Go-Ahead in the greater Dublin area. I highlighted this myself. It was brought to my attention my many commuters.

As the Deputy knows, public transport service obligations are provided by both State and commercial operators under contract with the National Transport Authority. I assure the Deputy that the performance of all these public transport operators is closely monitored by the NTA as part of contractual arrangements in place between it and the operators. I reassure the Deputy that I recently met with the NTA to discuss a range of public transport issues, including specifically these recent performance issues. The NTA fully acknowledged that an inadequate level of service was provided on certain routes operated on their behalf by Go-Ahead Ireland in recent weeks and it has been working closely with that operator to rectify the situation. The Deputy probably knows this already, but I understand that the issues arose due to a shortage of mechanics within the Go-Ahead operations. Upon the occurrence of the issue, various remedial measures were taken by Go-Ahead, including bringing in additional mechanics from Britain and obtaining additional support from other sources.

I have been advised that the situation has improved significantly and fleet availability within the Go-Ahead operations has now been restored to sufficient levels. I understand that the company has an ongoing mechanics recruitment campaign recruitment campaign and is continuing to invest in an apprenticeship program to train new mechanics and it is considering further recruitment initiatives to strengthen their mechanic resources.

Fundamentally the reliability of our bus services requires the type of bus priority measures we will introduce under BusConnects. This year will see construction start on the first of the BusConnects Dublin core bus corridors, with Liffey Valley and Ballymun-Finglas both expected to commence, and I look forward to the support of the House as we implement this transformative programme.

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