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Plans for massive Dublin Bus cuts a devastating blow for commuters

Issued : Wednesday 14 January, 2009

Confirmation that Transport Minister Noel Dempsey is considering severe cutbacks in Dublin Bus services in 2009 is a dismal prospect for commuters and workers in the Greater Dublin Area.

It has been reported that 200 jobs are at risk in Dublin Bus as well as cuts to as many as 120 buses and routes. Cutbacks of this scale would comprise a savage attack on bus services in Dublin and environs and is a very retrograde step. It has been reported that meetings will take place between the CIE companies and trade unions next week in relation to these proposals. Dublin Bus employees are rightly very anxious about the level of job cuts being discussed. There has also been speculation that similar cutbacks may be imposed on Bus Eireann and Irish Rail.

Astonishingly, these proposals come just a few months after the all party Dail Transport Committee recommended to Minister Dempsey and his colleagues that the Dublin Bus fleet be expanded by 350 buses, with significantly increased frequencies on routes and new orbital routes to provide more choice and reliability for commuters.

It is appalling that Minister Dempsey would choose to slash public transport services in such a way given the large numbers of commuters who rely heavily on buses to get to work and go about their daily business. It also makes no sense to attack essential public transport services given the need to get the economy back on track and maintain its competitiveness. Cutbacks of this magnitude are totally at odds with national transport, environment and climate change policies of getting commuters out of their cars and into public transport in order to reduce transport greenhouse gas emissions. It is also notable that the public subsidy to Dublin Bus is one of the lowest for a capital city public transport operator in the EU27.

It is particularly disappointing that the Green Ministers appear prepared to stand by and support this grotesque attack on essential bus services in the Dublin Region. Given the critical importance of bus services to public transport in the Greater Dublin Area, it is vital that Minister Dempsey now urgently reverses his short-sighted decision to slash and burn Dublin Bus services.