asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will consider holding a public inquiry into the continuing deterioration in the standard of the Dublin city bus service.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin City Bus Service.
19.
The maintenance of adequate bus services in Dublin is the responsibility of CIE who continuously endeavour to provide at all times a regular and reliable bus service. Traffic conditions, however, make it difficult to provide a satisfactory level of service but despite these problems, the introduction of modern control systems has helped to minimise delays.
I am informed by CIE that during the summer and autumn of 1975 they experienced difficulties in the manning of buses due to an inordinately high level of illness coinciding with the peak annual leave period for busmen. This situation has since improved.
Long term improvements in the level of service is dependent on the solution of traffic congestion problems which are primarily a matter for the local authorities concerned.
I do not consider that the holding of a public inquiry would serve any useful purpose.
I am very disappointed with the Minister's reply because anybody who has had experience of travelling on and using the bus service in this city definitely appreciates that there has been a steady deterioration in the public transport service. A contributing factor is that CIE have not recruited bus crews to man their existing bus services. There is also a lack of maintenance of buses which is also depriving the public of the service to which they are entitled. There is the question also of their not coping with the expanding city and a general feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration among the general public who use buses, which includes myself. I have had experience of waiting for a bus from 30 to 40 minutes.
This is a very long question.
There is certainly something radically wrong with such a bus service. I have asked for a public inquiry——
The Deputy has already asked that in the question.
The public are getting a very raw deal from CIE in the bus services in this city.
We cannot continue like this at Question Time. The Deputy has already made this point by way of a series of supplementary questions.
I appreciate, of course, that the public are frustrated and frequently annoyed by the standard of services provided by CIE in Dublin. But CIE hold that because of their more up-to-date allocation of buses and new telephone system they have improved their service gradually but continuously over the last five years. There are a number of other factors that have to be taken into account besides CIE when one speaks about an inadequate bus service in Dublin city. There is congestion, parking. The Garda would have to be brought in. Dublin Corporation and a number of other bodies would be involved.
All excuses.
When one gets into a "Catch 22" situation with traffic in Dublin in which the worse the traffic becomes, the more delayed the buses become, the less inclined people are to use them but to use their own cars instead. Again this makes the traffic worse, which means that the buses become less used than they might be otherwise. It is a very big problem. It warrants a lot of study. The Dublin transportation study outlined many of the problems and, perhaps, their solution.