2026-03-18

I raise the issue of Go-Ahead Ireland services in Wicklow. We have seen consistent problems with the service being provided by Go-Ahead. I raised this issue in the Dáil most recently a month ago. There were instances when Go-Ahead buses were not travelling the entire route and were skipping a number of stops. In one instance a young woman who has intellectual and physical disabilities was on the bus and it did not bring her down her road, which it was meant to do. She ended up being brought to the next village and was put out at the side of the road there. I have raised with Go-Ahead this issue and other instances of Go-Ahead buses not picking up teenagers on the route. Go-Ahead said it had dealt with these particular matters and that everything was resolved, yet I was still getting feedback from constituents. I have said previously to the Minister that there needs to be a level of transparency about bus services in general. As TDs, we find that a lot of people come to us to raise specific issues. Some people go to Transport for Ireland, TFI, and other people go to the various bus services. There needs to be a more transparent mechanism of dealing with it. I set up a Facebook page for anyone who has any issues. People also have to go to TFI directly but they detail the issue on the Facebook page. It is clear that the problems faced by service users on the L2 service in Wicklow still exist. Last week, on one day, Friday 13 March, eight L2 buses skipped the same five stops on Sea Road in Kilcoole. Overall last week, I had more than ten reports of buses on the L2 route skipping this particular road. I was told this issue had been resolved but clearly it has not been resolved. Yesterday, on St. Patrick's Day, there were three successive no-show buses between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. On certain days, these no-show or cancelled buses mean people are left waiting up to an hour for the next bus. A wheelchair user is one of the frequent contributors to my Facebook page. At present, his bus does not show up about once a week. We can see there is a major issue with the reliability. People are not going to get a bus if they are not sure it will definitely arrive. To be told by Go-Ahead that the problem had been solved is just unacceptable. There is also still the issue of drivers not picking up teenagers on the side of the road. When I raised this with Go-Ahead it indicated there had been some antisocial behaviour issues on the buses. However, there has to be a mechanism to deal with any such behaviour on a bus. It cannot simply be the case that where is an instance of antisocial behaviour, teenagers are just not picked up from then on. It is not acceptable to leave teenagers behind. Three teenage girls were left at the side of the road one day when the bus went past indicating it was full. It was not full. There are major problems with this service. I am talking specifically about the L2 but I have been told by a mother that the L1 has been repeatedly late bringing her child to the nearest school. The service is so bad and so unreliable that this mother is looking to change her daughter's school because she cannot rely on the child getting to school on time. This is no kind of service to be providing. I hope the Minister will give people in Wicklow some positive news as to how he will make sure that Go-Ahead provides the service it is being paid and is contracted to do. It has not done so since it received the contract a number of years ago. We need a proper service in Wicklow.

I thank Deputy Whitmore for the opportunity to discuss bus services and the future expansion of bus services in Wicklow. In many instances, good or very good services are being provided but obviously this is not the case with the L2 service, given what Deputy Whitmore has outlined. I will get to that specifically. Deputy Whitmore knows that, as Minister, I am responsible for policy and overall funding for public transport and I am not involved in day-to-day operations. Having said that, feedback like this is important. I do not welcome it, though, in the sense that I would rather there were not instances like this. Everyone will understand that from time to time issues and matters arise. Last year, we saw record-breaking numbers of PSO public transport journeys throughout the country. People are responding but what they need is information with regard to relying on particular bus services. I am struck by what Deputy Whitmore said about 13 March, when eight buses did not show up. That is wholly unacceptable. There could be an issue from time to time with a driver being sick and no relief driver being available, but it then occurred again on St. Patrick's Day. I will make inquiries directly about the L2 service, which I will get to in a moment. I am very focused on increasing the number of people using public transport across all our operators, including bus services across the country, Local Link with which we have had great success, intercity services and rail. We are seeing people respond to this. In the budget for 2026, we secured €940 million funding for public service obligation routes and TFI services received significant funding of €658 million. We are looking to cover both of these areas and we have a 46% increase in the PSO. Specifically regarding the L2 service and the Go-Ahead contract between Glendalough and Bray, from what Deputy Whitmore has said and from my research in advance of answering the question, I appreciate that customers have experienced significant difficulties with regard to cancellation and reliability. This has now been acknowledged by the operator. It told me there were a number of factors, primarily fleet availability and staffing. The National Transport Authority has been meeting Go-Ahead on a weekly basis to review performance and work with it to develop a plan to resolve the issues. It has advised me that performance has improved in recent weeks.

That is what I was told as well.

That is what I have been told but I have taken down the examples Deputy Whitmore has given me. Go-Ahead said that availability of fleet and staff has greatly reduced the number of lost kilometres being experienced on the route. The company has recruited a number of mechanics from overseas, which has assisted in addressing fleet reliability issues, while the number of drivers available to operate services also continues to improve. There has been strong momentum in March and the figures I have are that the L2 service has been operating at 98.33% of its contracted kilometres to date, exceeding key performance indicator, KPI, targets. Based on what Deputy Whitmore has said, we will certainly go back and check the figures but these are independent figures given to me. Go-Ahead has also completed an internal review of route adherence following reports of the service not serving Sea Road on a small number of occasions, and immediate corrective actions have been implemented. There has been no recurring issue since these actions were taken. I am telling Deputy Whitmore as I have it. If she has information to the contrary, I will take it directly to the NTA. I have a real frustration with ghost buses and buses not showing up. There have been improvements in recent months countrywide but there are still some areas where there appear to be specific issues with specific routes. I continue to raise this with the NTA and bus operators. I will raise the specific matters that Deputy Whitmore has raised. I am told there has been an improvement but Deputy Whitmore is telling me there has not. We will raise the matter with the NTA and Go-Ahead.

The Minister is correct that I am being told a different story by people on the ground. I will come back to him directly on this. I am worried about how no-shows are being recorded. I am being told there are no-shows, yet the NTA is not recording them or they are not being recorded in the systems as no-shows. I will speak to the Minister about this because it may require a more in-depth conversation. The Minister knows I am a big fan of public transport but it also needs to be reliable. If it is not reliable, there is no point to it. I know there have been issues with mechanics, the fleet and drivers. To be fair to people in Wicklow, they have given Go-Ahead a really good chance to get these things right but they are still not right. That is a big difficulty. At some stage, Go-Ahead has to be able to provide the service it is contracted to provide. If it has issues with drivers, fleet or mechanics, that is on it. It has a job to do and it is being paid to do the job. It is time it started doing that job and providing a proper bus service for Wicklow. I want to speak to the Minister about the 199 route, which is to run between Bray and Glendalough, servicing Laragh, Roundwood and Kilmacanogue. In May 2025, the NTA told me it was prioritising this particular route and that it had funding for it. In early September, I learned a provider had been awarded the contract and that it was to start in September 2025 but this still has not happened. I know of two women in Roundwood who had to give up their college places because they could not get from Roundwood to UCD or to Dublin because there was no public transport that would get them there. That service was promised and was meant to be up and running last September. When I last raised it with the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, he said the NTA was waiting for the 2026 service plan. That was in late January. There is still no news about the 199 route. There is a bus waiting, a driver waiting and a whole community waiting for that 199 service to start.

I will chase up the 199 route. I do not have an update on it as it was not part of the question. The Deputy will understand that. I welcome feedback from all Deputies, Government or Opposition, in relation to public transport. We have made significant advances over the last five years. Public transport journey numbers bear out that people are responding to it. Of course, we are not going to resolve issues in the course of one year, but we are investing more in public transport than we have ever done before. There is very significant infrastructure investment and fleet investment too. The service elements, particularly around no-shows and reliability of service, are incredibly frustrating to passengers. What our bus operators need to understand is that these are just passengers, but customers. The customer has to be at the centre of everything we do. The automatic vehicle location system will help greatly in that regard. That will be rolled out during this year and early next year. It will provide real-time data and an upgrade of the app. When a bus is cancelled or delayed, if people know that, they can arrange alternatives. It is where a bus still shows on an app as ag teacht when it is not, that is a real problem for people. The Deputy might give me the details specifically around the L2 service because the information that I have and that I prepared for in advance of this answer is contrary to what she said. Based on what I have been told, I have no reason to disbelieve that there have been improvements over the period since these matters were raised. However, the Deputy has given me two specific dates on which there were problems. If there are more, we need to know about it. I ask the Deputy to please feed any such information into me and the Department and I will take the matters up directly with the NTA and revert to her. I do not have an update on the 199 route, which is the Glendalough and Bray route. I will get an update for the Deputy and come back to her.