Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role and wish him the best in it. Public transport is a key challenge facing the country, but there is a lot of potential there to provide a service that will benefit so many communities across the country, and it is a vital service that we need to invest in and make sure operates properly. Key to any really good, successful public service is reliability. If it is not reliable, it completely undermines the whole system. People and the public have to have trust that a bus will show up when it says it will show up. We have seen the BusConnects programme being rolled out across Dublin and, in particular, I will talk about north Wicklow over recent weeks. This programme has been talked about and promised for a long time. There were quite a number of false starts with it but it was eventually rolled out a number of weeks ago. Unfortunately, when it was rolled out, the provider was not ready for it. GoAhead Ireland was contracted to provide a service under the BusConnects programme, and it was clear that it did not have enough staff or enough capacity to actually roll this programme out.

We had an incredible situation where three, four or five buses in a row were being cancelled on particular routes and there were drivers who did not know where they were meant to be going. People were really frustrated. College kids could not get to college and people were missing interviews. It caused enormous difficulties for people when it should have been a positive addition to the locality. This should have been a positive news story but because Go-Ahead Ireland was not prepared, it completely undermined things and still has not got fully on top of it. I had a meeting with the company. Apparently it did not have enough mechanics, which it is now recruiting. There is a really serious question here about why Go-Ahead Ireland got this service. How was it contracted to provide this service when it is not able to fulfil the most basis terms of service, namely, that a bus shows up when it is timetabled to do so? That is something I would like the Minister of State to examine in his role. If we contract out, those contractors are being paid to do a job and they must be able to do that job. This impacts everybody, but what has been raised with me is the huge problems that are caused for people with disabilities when their buses do not show up.

As I said, Go-Ahead Ireland has been contracted to provide this service. I understand a new tender has gone out and I think the company is also to get the new contract. Why is that and how is the Government going to be sure the company is going to be able to fulfil that? Dublin Bus provided the service on many of these routes previously. It was in a much better position to provide this service and it is problematic when we see this privatisation, especially when the private operators are not able to provide the service. I want to ask the Minister of State about this because I have been told a number of other routes are going to be privatised. They are going to be taken from Dublin Bus and given to other operators. One of those routes is in west Wicklow in my constituency: the 65 that goes from Ballymore Eustace through Blessington into Dublin. Can the Minister of State confirm that the 65 route is going to be privatised and can he explain why when we see so many failures with the current privatisation of the system?

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Whitmore for raising this very important matter. I concur completely that the biggest need is for bus services to be reliable and on time. We share the belief that should not just be an aspiration but a reality for the consumer, the travelling public. I thank the Deputy and appreciate the issues she has outlined in her contribution. I commit to bringing the issues she has raised back to the Department. I have not got all the answers for her this morning as I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien.

I clarify at the beginning that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport, but neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The NTA has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally and works with the public transport operators that deliver the services and have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters. That said, I reassure the Deputy that, as outlined in the programme for Government, Securing Ireland’s Future, the Government is strongly committed to enhancing transportation networks and infrastructure development and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. To support this objective, under budget 2025 the Department of Transport secured €658.442 million of funding for PSO and TFI Local Link services. This represents an increase from €613.813 million in 2024. This package includes funding for the continuation of the various fare initiatives, such as the young adult card and the 90-minute fare until the end of 2025. Funding has also been provided to extend free child fares on PSO services to include those aged five to eight years old and to support the roll-out of new and enhanced bus and rail services under programmes such as BusConnects and Connecting Ireland.

The Deputy is right when she says that we can have all those wonderful measures but if the service is not reliable and there is an issue with buses not being on time or not turning up, all of that counts for nothing. I concur as a Member who lives in an urban constituency and understands the importance of the issues the Deputy is speaking of. The Deputy is right and I will bring that back this afternoon.

BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system to provide better bus services across our cities. It is the largest investment in the bus system in the history of the State and is managed by the NTA. The aim of the network is to improve the existing Transport for Ireland system through enhanced services with high-frequency spines and new orbital and radial routes. Phase 6a involves the E-spine of the Bus Connects network redesign project. It was launched on 26 January 2025 and includes the introduction of two 24-hour spines - routes E1 and E2 - which serve areas including Bray, the city centre, Ballymun and Santry. It also provides new local and Xpress routes including L1, L2, L3, L12, L14, L15, L26, L27, X1 and X2 serving Greystones, Newcastle, Kilternan, Blackrock and more. The Bray to city centre core bus corridor will support integrated sustainable transport usage through infrastructure improvements for active travel and the provision of enhanced bus priority measures for all services that will use the corridor. The aim of these works is to provide improved bus, cycling and walking infrastructure on this key access corridor in the Dublin region, which will enable and deliver efficient, safe and integrated sustainable transport movement along the corridor. The core bus corridor scheme is a key measure that delivers on commitments within the National Development Plan 2021-2030, the Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy 2022-2042, the Climate Action Plan and the National Planning Framework 2040.

I understand the Department of Transport is engaging with the NTA regarding recent issues concerning particular bus services that are, as outlined by Deputy Whitmore, operated by Go-Ahead Ireland across some of its greater Dublin area routes. I am advised these issues are linked to fleet reliability issues across its network of services in Dublin due to a shortfall of mechanics. As the Deputy rightly said, the company has advertised for this role. This has had a knock-on impact on the routes launched in the Bray and Greystones area on 26 January as part of phase 6a of the BusConnects network redesign programme. The NTA will continue to monitor the situation closely. It is receiving daily reports from Go-Ahead Ireland on service availability by route. I have been advised the latest reports indicate a significant improvement in the situation. I will be interested to hear the Deputy's reply on that. I reassure her that all of us - the Department of Transport, the NTA and the public transport operators - must work to ensure the customer has a reliable service, as she has outlined, and the resources will meet passenger demand. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State. On reliability and improvements, there have been some improvements, but when we are still missing services that is going to hugely impact on the people who require that particular bus. For example, the bus from Newcastle has been frequently dropped. If there are improvements in say, the L3 in Delgany, that is not going to make any difference to the person in Newcastle who needs to get to work. It cannot be the case that there are slight improvements. We must see reliability across the whole system. Every bus that is due must turn up on time when it is meant to turn up and where it is meant to turn up.

I raise also the Xpress services. In Greystones we had the 84X Xpress service. It was a very good service that got people from Greystones into town in good time. It was run by Dublin Bus and was reliable. Under the BusConnects programme this is now being covered by the X1 and X2. There are a couple of problems with this. It now takes perhaps half an hour longer for the Xpress service to get to where it needs to go because of the changes, but as well as that the NTA has dropped a number of daytime services so it is now only a rush-hour service. My message to the Minister of State is this: if it is not broken, please do not fix it. The 84X was an excellent service that everyone appreciated. The service should have been expanded rather than being reduced and being made take longer. It is incredible that under the “transformative” BusConnects programme, as the Minister of State called it in his reply, transformation means Xpress services are taking 20 to 30 minutes longer than they did. That makes no sense. I ask the Minister of State whether more X1 and X2 services can be provided during the day to equate to what people had prior to the BusConnects roll-out and whether the 84X route can be brought back because it worked very well, unlike this expanded route.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Whitmore again for her contribution and for bringing the matter to the House. I assure her I fully recognise that transport connectivity is hugely important for the people who live, work and study in the areas she has mentioned and across urban and rural areas. It is vital and key to revitalising our villages, towns and urban centres.

I accept the challenges we have heard this morning and I will work with the Deputy to bring the issues she has raised back to the Department. I fully agree with the Deputy that reliability is critical. That is the end of the discussion; it has to be.

By expanding the public transport network and increasing service levels, as outlined in policies like Connecting Ireland and BusConnects, and as committed to in the programme for Government, the Government will aim to achieve with the providers more balanced regional development and greater connectivity for all public transport users. I can assure Deputy Whitmore that I will take the points she has made with regard to the 84X, X1 and X2 bus services and bring them back to the Department, which I hope will liaise with the providers and the NTA.

BusConnects has already achieved significant success in transforming Dublin's public transport network. In the latest progress report, published in the summer, comparisons were made between network redesign phases 1 to 5a before launch, from quarter 4 of 2019, and after launch, from 2023. The programme has led to a substantial increase in service levels. Customer satisfaction research into phases 1 to 4 of the network redesign project shows an 80% level of user satisfaction. There is, however, a piece that we need to get right. I concur with Deputy Whitmore in that regard. I can reassure her that the NTA and the Department of Transport will continue to work closely with the operators to enhance the punctuality and reliability of public transport services, both on existing routes and in the new services which continue to be rolled out.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been advised that the NTA is liaising and working closely with Go-Ahead Ireland to improve service delivery on the impacted routes and that improvements have already taken place. Further, through initiatives such as the implementation of new ticketing technologies, we are taking steps to enhance capacity and improve the overall transport experience for members. On behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, I again thank Deputy Whitmore for raising these matters this morning. I assure her that I will bring her concerns back. It is important that we listen, hear and engage.