ANALYSIS/Tim O'Brien: A new bus service between Dalkey and Dublin airport has been remarkably successful. So why did Noel Dempsey set the Garda on it?
IT IS 4am on a bitterly cold March morning and you are waiting in Dalkey for a bus to the airport.
There isn't one. You can pay for a taxi - but you should really have booked - and next time remember to take a flight at a sensible hour.
What? You're not flying out? You are a shift worker at the airport? Part of the team of 15,000 shift workers covering everything from security to petrol sales and aircraft maintenance.
Move your shifts to the daytime. Not possible?
Listen, get a car.
In 2005 Dalkey resident Trevor Patton figured out that as CIÉ was not an early rising transport company - there are few vehicles operational before 6am - many of the workers at the Dublin airport must be forced to travel by car. Then there's the 400,000-plus aircraft passengers who use the airport each week. Surely there might be a gap in the market for a fast, inexpensive bus service.
He bought a coach business and an operator's licence, one of two key legal requirements. The second was a route licence from the Department of Transport and he applied for one in June 2006.
But, he said, despite Dublin Transportation Office policy in favour of public transport, chronic traffic congestion in the city centre and the M50, despite the difficulties of the travelling public themselves and the concern of the hotel industry, the department had not made a decision more than a year later, in July 2007.
So, frustrated, Patton went ahead and started The Patton Flyer in July last year. The hourly service starts at Dalkey at 4am, and stops just a few times between Dalkey and Sydney Parade Dart Station before going direct to the airport via the Dublin Port tunnel. It costs €7 one way and the travel time from Dalkey is about 45 minutes.
Mirroring other services established in recent years, such as a Bray to Airport Link and the Eircoach network, the service has become very popular, particularly among airport workers. He claims the service eliminates over 1,000 car journeys each week.
"Then there are the holiday makers: Many of the hotels we serve now have us on their website," he said.
But it has not all been happy motoring. While the department could not provide a decision, on the second day of operation officials warned The Patton Flyer that it was illegal. Even the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, became involved.
Mr Dempsey acknowledged that private operators should have access to the bus market in Dublin, and added that "all the reports I received about the service were that it is top class . . . "but it is an illegal service". He told the Dáil "nobody in this House should condone anybody who is breaking the law, even if the law is inadequate".
Mr Dempsey said he had asked gardaí to take immediate action against the company.
The service continues to be supported by the TDs themselves with Dún Laoghaire deputies Barry Andrews and Ciarán Cuffe calling for it to be retained. Said Mr Cuffe: "I used it to get to the airport . . . and because I needed to get back in time to attend the Dáil".
Mr Cuffe said he believed the delay was due to "a log jam" which will be cleared by the setting up of the Dublin Transport Authority, due later this year.
"The important thing is to get the Dublin Transportation Authority up and running. But I can certainly understand the frustration of somebody going out there and starting up a business," he commented.