Employee gets final warning for being late due to unreliable Go-Ahead bus service, Dáil told

An employee dependent on a private bus company to get to work is now on a final warning for being late because of the unreliability of the transport service, the Dáil has heard.

Sinn Féin TD Réada Cronin said the Go-Ahead service in her north Kildare constituency “is the bane of workers’ lives”.

She said she knows of several workers “who are on late warnings from their employer and one on a final late warning because of the No 120 bus and the absolutely appalling Go-Ahead service”.

Ms Cronin was among a number of Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil TDs who have repeatedly highlighted problems with the company’s service across Dublin, Meath and Kildare.

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Minister of State for Transport Hildegarde Naughton said the entire transport sector is affected by Covid-related staff absences and difficulties recruiting but that Go Ahead is “experiencing higher than normal levels”, with a number of services not operating as scheduled.

The company has said “it will have the adequate number of drivers by December of this year” she told the Dáil.

[ Bus and rail union calls for family-friendly policies to help bolster driver numbers ]

But Sinn Féin enterprise spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly said the company “seems to be recruiting some of the most delicate drivers I have ever heard of. The level of sick leave and Covid seems to be disproportionately impacting the workers in Go-Ahead”.

She said that “the simple fact is that Go-Ahead is not delivering on its contractual obligations. That is the bottom line: it is being paid to deliver a service and it is not delivering that service” and she asked what Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan intended to do about it.

The company’s contract to operate a number of bus services runs until October next year, but the National Transport Authority (NTA) which has responsibility for such operations, is required, it is understood, to give one year’s notice of a decision not to continue with a contract.

Ms Naughton said the NTA had highlighted the difficulties across the sector in recruiting drivers and because of Covid-19 but Sinn Féin transport spokesman Darren O’Rourke said it was “weasel words” from the NTA because there is a “particular and pronounced problem with Go-Ahead”.

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Fianna Fáil Dún Laoghaire TD Cormac Devlin highlighted one case where a man had to wait more than an hour and a half “for a service that is meant to run every 20 minutes, which is completely unacceptable”.

The passenger waited in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow on Monday because “the 13.10, the 13.30 and the 13.50 bus services to Dún Laoghaire on the 45A route did not show up. When he contacted Go-Ahead, he was told that the 14.13 service was also being cancelled and he would have to wait until 14.33.”

Fianna Fáil Dublin North West TD Paul McAuliffe said one service operated in his constituency but it was consistently happening where passengers are at the bus stop at 7.50am for work at 9am but have to wait almost 55 minutes for a service and will not get to work until 9.45am.

Ms Naughton, standing in for Mr Ryan told the six TDs who raised the issue that the NTA was closely monitoring the performance of all public transport operators.

She said Go-Ahead had been fined almost €475,000 between October last year and March this year for breaches. Mr McAuliffe said that Dublin Bus had been fined €1.5 million but Go-Ahead with a fraction of the number of services had received fines totalling €850,00.

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Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh claimed the Go-Ahead service was unreliable before the Covid pandemic and now “most people are abandoning these services, which means they are unviable, and they have to rely on other services”.