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

I 100% agree. There have been issues with Go-Ahead Ireland, for example, with regard to mechanics. That has been rectified and those mechanics are now in place. We have had issues with driver recruitment across our network. One of the reasons for that is we have near full employment in our economy, with record numbers of people - nearly 3 million - working. Having said that , there are very good and well-paid jobs that give a path to progression within our bus operators, including in Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and others.

The Deputy is right, and I have said this to the NTA, that when an operator bids for a route and is awarded it, we must be absolutely certain the resources are there to manage it. The people need to be there to do the job. Lots of good work has been done and I do not mean to be negative but I have been frustrated on a couple of occasions that we only found out after the event, when issues arose with particular routes, that the operator did not have enough mechanics or had not been able to recruit drivers. We need to tighten up on that big time between the NTA and the operators. Fines will continue to be imposed. In 2024, which is the most recent year for which we have full-year figures, the main private operator was fined nearly €1.5 million. Those fines are reinvested in the network.

I assure the Deputy that this matter is not off my radar. We will get improvements here. BusConnects is a good thing right across the country. There have been issues with new routes. We will work to fix them.

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