Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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54. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will ensure that the request of public transport commuters in County Cavan for additional capacity on a route will be given further consideration (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41895/24]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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This Government and the Minister, in particular, have advocated very strongly for people to use public transport, and I am very glad that new and additional services have been provided to areas like my two counties of Cavan and Monaghan. Next Monday, a new Local Link service linking Cavan, Cross Keys, Ballyjamesduff, Virginia, Mullagh, Moynalty, Kells and on to Baile Ghib will be introduced with good frequency. My particular concern, however, is the lack of adequate capacity on the Cavan-Dublin commuter belt, particular the No. 109 and No. 109x services. There are peak times in the services, both morning and afternoon into early evening, when people are being left behind or delayed for far too long before they can access their bus journey home. We need additional capacity and revised schedules.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding with regard to public transport. However, I am not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the National Transport Authority, NTA, including the management of the public service obligation, PSO, programme. Bus Éireann operates several PSO routes along the M3 motorway corridor as part of its direct award contracts with the NTA. These contracts set out the level of service Bus Éireann provides on the route, including the schedule, frequency, fleet, etc., while the fares are determined by the NTA in its capacity as fare regulator.

In recent months, Bus Éireann has undertaken a performance review process on all of its public service obligation routes that operate along the M3 corridor, including the 109 and 109x Dublin to Cavan via Kells service. The performance review also examined route No. 111 serving Athboy to Dublin; route No. 111a serving Cavan to Delvin via Granard; route No. 111x serving Dublin to Clonmellon; and route Nx serving Navan to Dublin. While Bus Éireann has advised that there are no plans at present to implement a new or direct service between counties Cavan and Dublin, on foot of the performance review, the company intends to introduce revised timetables from 27 October, which will better meet the needs of passengers using these services by reducing capacity issues and improving service reliability on the routes.

Bus Éireann will continue to monitor customer travel patterns along the M3 corridor after the timetable changes are implemented at the end of October and if service issues continue, Bus Éireann, in conjunction with the NTA, will examine what additional interventions could be put in place to improve services for the public.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. I must say I am disappointed that the performance review does not recommend some changes to the Dublin-Cavan route. What I am talking about, in particular, is the need to introduce, in the morning time leaving Cavan, direct services from Cavan, through Virginia, Whitegate, which is on the Cavan-Meath border, then to Dublin. Similarly, in the late afternoon and early evening, I would advocate, as others would, for direct services from Busáras to Whitegate, Cavan, through Virginia to Cavan town.

What is happening at present - I hear it from commuters and Bus Éireann staff as well - is that when the 109 and 109X leave Busáras, sometimes they are full. They are not able to pick up passengers who are expecting to be able to get home on a scheduled service and there are passengers bound for County Cavan being left behind in the city of Dublin and in west Dublin and on into Meath.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I accept what the Deputy is saying. I happen to be meeting with Bus Éireann in the coming days and I will raise directly with its representatives this issue the Deputy has raised.

I will make a couple of points. One issue we have is we have seen real success, particularly in the last two years, in public transport numbers. Last year they went up 23% nationally and this year, 12% so far. Part of what we are seeing is a phenomenal success due to fare reductions and other measures. We need to build on that.

There are real constraints on Bus Éireann. More so in Cork and some other locations, there are still real constraints in getting drivers and mechanics. That is an issue that we have to be aware of.

I believe one of the ways in which we can most improve the service is if we can provide bus priority measures right across all the routes so that the bus drivers and buses we have are not delayed in traffic and we improve the service. That allows us then to maybe start looking at additional capacity measures because the bus schedule works much more efficiently. That could be one of the ways in which we enhance the service.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The point I want to make is there are people getting on the buses that are bound for Cavan who are not travelling to County Cavan. They are getting off between Dublin and Cavan. When the buses arrive to either Virginia or Cavan town, those buses are not full. Cavan people quite understandably say to me - they would say it to Bus Éireann workers and others - that they were left behind. There were people on that Cavan bus who have very good services to other towns in County Meath, whereas if those few buses in the morning and few buses leaving Dublin in the evening time did not stop before they reached County Cavan, the problem would be eliminated.

We are not talking about huge extra capacity. We are talking about a reconfiguration of existing services in order that those who want to get to Cavan town will be fairly sure, after a hospital appointment in the Mater, Beaumont or whatever, if they go out to the bus, that they can expect to get on the bus at 4.30 p.m., as they cannot wait until 7 p.m. It is about a bit of common sense, and not looking for additional capacity as such. A reconfiguration could mean so much.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I have a question on this issue, as Question No. 78 is on this specific route as well.

These issues have beengoing on for years. A parliamentary question response from the NTA over a year ago stated that a revised timetable for routes 109 and 109X with capacity improvements was scheduled to go live on 24 September 2023 and that it continues to monitor passage usage levels, and yet the Minister is saying now something else has to go live in another few weeks' time. Obviously, whatever they did was not sufficient at the time. What we have are people being left standing at bus stops, sometimes for hours and often in the rain. Often elderly people come from hospital appointments, especially in the James Connolly hospital. It is totally unfair. We need additional routes.

I agree with Deputy Brendan Smith in asking the Minister to consider having routes that go directly from Dublin to the county of Cavan and have separate routes to go to Meath and service the town of Kells, in particular. That would solve the problem.

This is ongoing, as I said, for too long, and it needs to be addressed.

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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My question in relation to Question No. 54 is to do with the process that the NTA engages in response to overcrowding on service provision which is an ongoing issue. They are not responsive enough. I have seen this in my constituency. I have seen this on DCU-bound services from the north east, which would, of course, include counties Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Meath and even Westmeath, where services are full when they reach the outskirts of Dublin or even at source and the NTA does not seem to be able to respond quick enough. Surely the organisation should foresee an uptick in people wanting to use the service at the commencement of the academic year every September. I have an ongoing issue with its capacity to respond to recognise that there is a problem with the provision and that it therefore should put on more services. I am specifically referring to those contracts.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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In response to the three Deputies, we have mechanisms and encourage and the NTA delivers so-called "enhancements". Where we are finding that there may be a service that is under real pressure and a bus is full, we have the capability of funding and providing for additional buses.

That is different to what I heard Deputies Tully and Smith talking about and I take the point. Are we are seeing buses full with what are relatively short-hop passengers, to Navan and Kells, meaning that passengers to Cavan are frozen out? I will raise that with Bus Éireann when I speak to it.

It is not only Bus Éireann that is relevant. There are private operators. Often some people think private operators have an advantage over the PSO routes, which may be compelled to stop in a number of locations on route. Often private operators, if there is that gap in the market, have successfully delivered non-stop or one-stop services from the likes of Cavan up to Dublin or further afield. What we saw during Covid is a lot of those operators ran into real difficulty. Prior to that they had continued to see massive expansion. I believe it benefits us that we have both a strong Bus Éireann but also a strong contract or private bus operated services because they provide a useful role often where there is a gap, particularly where one might want one-stop services. The private sector also has a role.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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On this route-----

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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No, the Deputy is finished. The Deputy has had his interventions.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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May I make one point?

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I am sorry. Apologies, I cannot.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Buses are leaving Dublin full before they are to pick up people extra.