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Dáil
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

West Wicklow bus services

Summary

Deputy Timmins complained about delays to promised improvements on the 132 and 199 bus services and poor inter-agency communication. The Taoiseach said he would follow up with the Minister for Transport and stressed the need for Departments and agencies to work together.

The 132 bus service is the only bus to Dublin for most of west Wicklow. A year ago, I was told by the National Transport Authority, NTA, that the frequency of the service would be doubling. Nothing has happened since then. How do different Departments and Government bodies talk to one other? The NTA made that announcement without even having a timetable from Bus Éireann. How will communication be improved between Departments and different bodies? Second, the much-needed 199 bus service promised for last September from Glendalough to Bray was all ready to go before being canned at the last minute. How can we ensure Departments and State bodies talk and work better together? There seems to be a complete breakdown in communication. They are telling us different stories.

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There will be songs written about the 132 bus yet. It has been raised here on numerous occasions and I will talk to the Minister in respect of it.

There could be a few PhD theses written about Government agencies and Government Departments talking to each other. There is a human tendency to try to live in silos. We work extremely hard to break all of that down. The integrated approach of people working together is key. I will follow up with the Minister for Transport in respect of bus transport. There has been a significant expansion of bus services over the last number of years. There was some degree of consolidation this year, to be frank, and in terms of other expenditure items.

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