Public Transport Dail Éireann — 2026-03-18 ============================================================ Jennifer Whitmore (SD), Wicklow 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. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-18