Bus Éireann fined over €5.7m for service issues
A Of Meet Services Shows Only Cummins Performance Nta Minimum Quarter City's Standards, Larry Cork Bus Picture: Data
Bus Éireann has been hit with over €5.7m in performance-related fines over the last six years, with €1.5m levied against the bus company last year alone.
The bus operator paid out €1,554,000 in overall fines last year, with just over €1m of this due to its failure to meet punctuality standards.
The remaining fines, levied by the National Transport Authority (NTA), for last year came through a failure to meet service standards (€107,150) and failure to meet reliability standards (€364,980).
The figures, released to Cork North Central TD Thomas Gould through a parliamentary question, also show that it faced its biggest fines in 2022, where it was hit with a bill of over €2m.
The statistics are not on a city or route-by-route basis and are for the entire country.
Mr Gould said the figures show that the Bus Éireann service in 2023 was “significantly less reliable than in other years”.
“These fines have been creeping up year on year to a point where they are clearly not sustainable,” Mr Gould said.
“This fines system incentivises buses to miss the final few stops on their routes because when a bus is running late, and knows it will be late for its next route, the fines snowball.
The Sinn Féin TD said that there needs to be investment in Bus Éireann to ensure that there are enough drivers in Cork City.
Statistics from the NTA in December showed that only a quarter of Cork City's bus services meet minimum performance standards.
The bus route performance data, which was collected from 2021 to mid-2023, tracked the performance and punctuality of the city’s 25 bus routes.
An analysis shows that just six routes met the minimum standard.
Social media platforms and forums have been awash with angry comments from passengers in recent months who have complained about the service in Cork.