{"id":38888,"date":"2025-09-02T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/38888\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T15:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:33:12","slug":"nta-spent-just-e97-on-dublin-west-bus-services-in-2022-and-nothing-at-all-in-2023-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/38888\/","title":{"rendered":"NTA spent just \u20ac97 on Dublin West bus services in 2022 and nothing at all in 2023 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Transport Authority<\/a> (NTA) spent only \u20ac97 on enhancing existing bus services in the Dublin West constituency in 2022 followed by nothing the following year, it has emerged.<\/p>\n

Minister of State for Transport Se\u00e1n Canney was prompted to ask if the \u20ac97 was used \u201cto replace a wing mirror on a bus\u201d.<\/p>\n

The figure was highlighted in a parliamentary reply to Fine Gael<\/a> TD for Dublin West, Emer Currie<\/a>. The NTA also revealed it has developed a \u201cbusiness intelligence\u201d tool using Leap card ticketing data to identify late and \u201cghost buses\u201d for priority intervention.<\/p>\n

Commuters have complained about \u201clate buses, disappearing buses<\/a>, full buses\u201d and \u201cghost buses\u201d. The latter complaint refers to buses that are listed on screens at bus stops but then disappear as they are expected to arrive.<\/p>\n

Ms Currie said that between 2020 and 2024, \u201c\u20ac17 million was spent on launching new orbital bus routes in Dublin West while just \u20ac1.6 million was allocated to improving over a dozen existing commuter bus services\u201d.<\/p>\n

The constituency encompasses the Phoenix Park area, Castleknock, Ongar, Blanchardstown, Mulhuddart, and Clonsilla, among other places.<\/p>\n

In 2020, \u20ac1.25 million was invested in existing bus services in her constituency. \u201cThis dropped to \u20ac1,865 in 2021, a measly \u20ac97 in 2022 and nothing, that\u2019s zero, in 2023. This is despite growing demand, an increase in population and new residential development.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the \u20ac97 spend on existing bus routes was raised in the D\u00e1il, Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> told her: \u201cI have no idea what that was. As the Minister of State Canney said, it might have been to replace a wing mirror on a bus. Without being facetious about it, further investment is unquestionably needed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ms Currie described the \u20ac97 spend as \u201cshocking\u201d and said she was \u201cfrustrated that they allowed the funding to go so low\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Disappearing buses\u2019: Passenger\u2019s 10km commute from south Dublin can take two hoursOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Investment in existing bus services across all of Dublin dropped from \u20ac7.845 million in 2020 to just \u20ac5,887 in 2021. It rose to \u20ac38,581 the following year, to \u20ac2.4 million in 2023 and \u20ac4.58 million last year. <\/p>\n

The Dublin West TD acknowledged a promised \u20ac500,000 this year to address punctuality and reliability issues on the 37, 38 and 70 routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not enough to meet demand in established communities and the growth of new estates,\u201d she added. Ms Currie outlined that 4,000 new homes were built in parts of Mulhuddart and Hansfield, but \u201cvery limited bus enhancements\u201d were implemented.<\/p>\n

The difficulty was \u201cnot just because of the technology and congestion on our roads\u201d, she said. \u201cIt is a deliberate policy to invest in new orbital routes over existing services. That\u2019s not fair on commuters.\u201d<\/p>\n

While welcoming the new \u201cbusiness intelligence\u201d tool being used to identify where capacity issues are experienced, she said \u201cthey should have been working on capacity issues two years ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

The NTA will use the new tool to identify a priority list of routes requiring intervention. However, it said the \u201cintroduction of these changes will be subject to the availability of resources, including funding, drivers and buses as well as operational readiness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Currie said the upcoming budget needs to provide adequate funding to the NTA to support new and existing services, the continuation of cheaper fares and the expansion of free public transport for children under nine years old.<\/p>\n

The NTA has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Transport Authority (NTA) spent only \u20ac97 on enhancing existing bus services in the Dublin West constituency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,52,18,19,17,13456],"class_list":{"0":"post-38888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dublin","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-national-transport-authority"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}