I raise the issue of Go-Ahead Ireland services in Wicklow. We have seen consistent problems with the service being provided by Go-Ahead. I raised this issue in the Dáil most recently a month ago. There were instances when Go-Ahead buses were not travelling the entire route and were skipping a number of stops. In one instance a young woman who has intellectual and physical disabilities was on the bus and it did not bring her down her road, which it was meant to do. She ended up being brought to the next village and was put out at the side of the road there. I have raised with Go-Ahead this issue and other instances of Go-Ahead buses not picking up teenagers on the route. Go-Ahead said it had dealt with these particular matters and that everything was resolved, yet I was still getting feedback from constituents. I have said previously to the Minister that there needs to be a level of transparency about bus services in general. As TDs, we find that a lot of people come to us to raise specific issues. Some people go to Transport for Ireland, TFI, and other people go to the various bus services. There needs to be a more transparent mechanism of dealing with it. I set up a Facebook page for anyone who has any issues. People also have to go to TFI directly but they detail the issue on the Facebook page. It is clear that the problems faced by service users on the L2 service in Wicklow still exist. Last week, on one day, Friday 13 March, eight L2 buses skipped the same five stops on Sea Road in Kilcoole. Overall last week, I had more than ten reports of buses on the L2 route skipping this particular road. I was told this issue had been resolved but clearly it has not been resolved. Yesterday, on St. Patrick's Day, there were three successive no-show buses between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. On certain days, these no-show or cancelled buses mean people are left waiting up to an hour for the next bus. A wheelchair user is one of the frequent contributors to my Facebook page. At present, his bus does not show up about once a week. We can see there is a major issue with the reliability. People are not going to get a bus if they are not sure it will definitely arrive. To be told by Go-Ahead that the problem had been solved is just unacceptable. There is also still the issue of drivers not picking up teenagers on the side of the road. When I raised this with Go-Ahead it indicated there had been some antisocial behaviour issues on the buses. However, there has to be a mechanism to deal with any such behaviour on a bus. It cannot simply be the case that where is an instance of antisocial behaviour, teenagers are just not picked up from then on. It is not acceptable to leave teenagers behind. Three teenage girls were left at the side of the road one day when the bus went past indicating it was full. It was not full. There are major problems with this service. I am talking specifically about the L2 but I have been told by a mother that the L1 has been repeatedly late bringing her child to the nearest school. The service is so bad and so unreliable that this mother is looking to change her daughter's school because she cannot rely on the child getting to school on time. This is no kind of service to be providing. I hope the Minister will give people in Wicklow some positive news as to how he will make sure that Go-Ahead provides the service it is being paid and is contracted to do. It has not done so since it received the contract a number of years ago. We need a proper service in Wicklow.

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That is what I was told as well.

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The Minister is correct that I am being told a different story by people on the ground. I will come back to him directly on this. I am worried about how no-shows are being recorded. I am being told there are no-shows, yet the NTA is not recording them or they are not being recorded in the systems as no-shows. I will speak to the Minister about this because it may require a more in-depth conversation. The Minister knows I am a big fan of public transport but it also needs to be reliable. If it is not reliable, there is no point to it. I know there have been issues with mechanics, the fleet and drivers. To be fair to people in Wicklow, they have given Go-Ahead a really good chance to get these things right but they are still not right. That is a big difficulty. At some stage, Go-Ahead has to be able to provide the service it is contracted to provide. If it has issues with drivers, fleet or mechanics, that is on it. It has a job to do and it is being paid to do the job. It is time it started doing that job and providing a proper bus service for Wicklow. I want to speak to the Minister about the 199 route, which is to run between Bray and Glendalough, servicing Laragh, Roundwood and Kilmacanogue. In May 2025, the NTA told me it was prioritising this particular route and that it had funding for it. In early September, I learned a provider had been awarded the contract and that it was to start in September 2025 but this still has not happened. I know of two women in Roundwood who had to give up their college places because they could not get from Roundwood to UCD or to Dublin because there was no public transport that would get them there. That service was promised and was meant to be up and running last September. When I last raised it with the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, he said the NTA was waiting for the 2026 service plan. That was in late January. There is still no news about the 199 route. There is a bus waiting, a driver waiting and a whole community waiting for that 199 service to start.

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