Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for staying with us to this relatively late hour tonight. I want to raise some issues that have arisen on certain bus routes that serve my constituency. Some routes are new and others have been in place for a while. I am a big supporter of the BusConnects project. The aim of improving connectivity across our city is very important. I have been on the record for years locally, and now here in the Dáil, as a staunch defender of BusConnects. It is precisely because of this support that it is important we address issues as they arise. I want BusConnects to work for people, so it is important that we listen to them, take their feedback on board and find workable solutions.

Unfortunately, I have had loads of constituents contact me again in the last few weeks about their own bus disconnect issues. I will touch on the problems we are seeing on the S routes first, which include the S4, the S6 and the S8 through my area. These routes were rolled out in November 2023. They have been plagued with issues ever since. It was particularly bad at the beginning of this year, and in the last couple of weeks, unfortunately, the same issues we had at the start of the year have started to rear their heads again, with ghost buses, cancellations and delays.

I was listening to the questions the Minister of State took earlier and I know that other Members have raised these issues with him also. The excuse given earlier this year was that the operator of these routes, which is Go-Ahead, was short on mechanics, and I understood that new mechanics were taken on afterwards. The service did improve but now I need to know why the same problems have started to creep back in again. We need to nip it in the bud. We should not have people accepting that, every few months, there will be a period when the bus they rely on to get to work, school or wherever becomes as unreliable as a chocolate teapot for a period of time. The S4 and S6 serve UCD. Again, numerous students have been on to me over the last few weeks telling me they are missing lectures because the bus just never turned up or a series of buses in a row did not turn up. It is noteworthy that these routes are run by Go-Ahead. I have never been particularly comfortable with the privatisation of our bus routes and the level of service on Go-Ahead routes in general has left a lot to be desired.

I will refer directly to what one of my constituents wrote because she really hit the nail on the head. She emailed me and said it was easy to collect public contracts and revenue while leaving commuters stranded but far harder to uphold the social responsibility that came with providing essential transport to an entire region. She said that when profit took precedence over quality and maintenance, the result was precisely what passengers of the S8 endured daily, with disruption, uncertainty and disregard.

The other bus route I want to raise is the new F spine and particularly the F1 route. Since its launch in mid-October, it has faced a lot of the same issues. I have raised this with the NTA and it has held its hands up a little bit and explained there were teething issues, as we would expect with new routes, and issues with traffic light sequences. Regarding this route, constituents have been raising with me that there are longer journey times as a result of the new route, particularly from Tallaght and Firhouse. Some people find it is taking them half an hour longer on the new F route than it would have taken them to get into town on the previous 49 bus route.

It seems to me that the main issue is the fact the new route has been diverted onto residential roads, which have high levels of traffic congestion and do not have dedicated bus lanes. I am not suggesting the entire route be redrawn but I hope the Minister and the NTA will take onboard the feedback from transport users in my area. There may be a case to make that there is sufficient demand for an additional route that may more closely follow the old 49 route.

Ultimately, I want BusConnects to work but people need reliable and efficient services. We cannot allow a situation to arise where people get into their cars again because they do not have confidence in our public transport.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Ahern for raising this important issue. It is following the theme of lots of tonight's priority and oral questions during Question Time. I am taking this issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, who is in Brazil. I want to clarify that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, neither the Minister, me as Minister of State or the officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services.

The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services rests with the National Transport Authority. That being said, I reassure Deputy Ahern that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this. To support this objective, the Department of Transport secured €940 million in budget 2026 in funding for public service obligation and TFI Local Link services, an increase of 43% from €658 million in 2025.

BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system, providing 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 local, orbital and radial routes.

The recently launched F spine, providing routes F1, F2, and F3, is part of phase 7 of the BusConnects network redesign and introduces high-frequency, 24-hour bus services on routes F1, F2 and 80 on key corridors, enhancing connectivity between areas such as Tallaght, Finglas, Charlestown and the city centre. This redesign also introduces new radial services on routes 23, 24, 73 and 82, and the new local route L89, to streamline the network and make services more efficient.

Ahead of implementation, the NTA undertook extensive communication efforts, distributing over 200,000 booklets to households across the areas covered by the routes. It also advertised the new services in local media outlets and online and provided detailed briefings to local public representatives. It is acknowledged that these changes require some passengers to make their journeys in a different way. In some cases, customers now benefit from direct services where transfers were previously required, while others may need to interchange.

The TFI 90 fare ensures that transfers incur no additional cost.

In the days after the launch of phase 7, the NTA reported a technical fault in the Dublin Bus priority system, which adjusts traffic signals to ease bus movement. The fault lasted three consecutive days and caused unexpected delays, which understandably frustrated customers. Thankfully, the issue was resolved quickly, and performance is expected to continue to improve. While this issue was separate from the BusConnects new service roll-out, it did impact all Dublin Bus routes during that period.

The NTA and transport operators are working hard to ensure that the services are bedding in well but understand that it can take some time for people to get accustomed to any new arrangement. The kind of issues experienced at the launch of phase 7 are similar to those experienced during the early stages of implementation of previous phases that were addressed and resolved.

In terms of the S orbital, phase 5b commenced on 26 November 2023 and involved the introduction of new southern orbital, radial and local routes. The S2, 74 and L25 routes are operated by Dublin Bus, while the S4, S6, S8, W2 and L55 are operated by Go-Ahead Ireland. This phase represented a major boost in service levels of approximately 80%. To put that into context, routes 17 and 175 used to provide approximately five services an hour in each direction during peak times.

We have introduced a lot of bus routes and changed them around. I will come back in and answer a bit more for the Deputy.

Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Minister of State was just getting to the good stuff there; I see it in front of me in the statement.

Obviously, we welcome the increased investment in public transport. It is long overdue and it is great to see it. The Minister of State mentioned - and he can come back to me on this in his supplementary response - that the S6 will move to a high-frequency timetable. I would be interested to know when that might happen.

BusConnects has the potential to lead to a much better service, which is why I support it. It is right that our bus services and bus routes are being redesigned for a city that has changed immeasurably since these bus routes were first implemented, in fact following the old tramlines through the city and keeping many of the old route names, such as the 16. However, when we are bringing in new routes and redesigning a whole network, people also need to understand how the new routes will work for them. I know the NTA has said it has briefed public representatives, but people should not need to come to their TDs to have it explained to them how these new bus routes will work or how they will get from A to B again. I encourage the NTA to arrange more meetings in community centres around the city to explain the changes in these routes to people face to face. This may not be as clear when you get a leaflet through the door - if you do get that leaflet through the door, and people have questioned some of that.

The new BusConnects system requires people to change or to move from bus to bus where there may not be a direct route any more and you may be expected to change. That is all premised on a city that does not have any traffic congestion for it to work properly. We can get carried away sometimes worrying about contactless payments and things like that. People just want a reliable service from their buses. Some of that is down to our now having to make decisions to prioritise our public transport on our roads, reallocate our road space and make sure that public transport is prioritised over everything else for the greater good of the community.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I will get to the good part for the Deputy.

Many communities have benefited from the first direct connection to the likes of UCD from the Long Mile Road, Crumlin hospital, Ballyfermot, Cherry Orchard, Rathgar and Milltown on the S4, and Firhouse Road, Cherryfield and Templeogue on the S6 route.

The Deputy asked about the S6. It will move to a high-frequency timetable to improve punctuality, while the S8 will get run time adjustments to boost reliability. These improvements will go live on 30 November.

Coming back to what the Deputy has said, the important thing is that we have a reliable service, that people understand the routes and where to get on and off and that we create, as I said earlier, an experience for passengers such that they will continue to use public transport. We are investing a lot of money in public transport. We are investing a lot of money in BusConnects. We are investing money in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. The important thing is that if the routes do not work right, it is bad value for money. While we will have teething problems when we start a new route, it is important that we let people know and engage with the public, not just public representatives, and that we do so through multifaceted communication. It is important that if something is not working, we look and see how we can improve it rather than just leaving it there.

We have a lot in the Department of Transport to bring back to the NTA after tonight's discussions, and a lot of it has a common thread. Public transport is probably working relatively well, but when there is a problem it becomes the overburdening thing in people's minds. We need to act faster to get these small imperfections sorted out in order that we have a smoother transport system. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter with me.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Thank you, Minister. That was a useful education on Dublin buses.