HIRING DRIVERS AND BATTLING traffic are two of the key issues faced by bus operators, TDs and senators have been told.

The Oireachtas Committee on Transport convened this afternoon to hear from Dublin Bus, Go Ahead Ireland, Bus Éireann and the Coach Tourism and Transport Council about challenges facing the bus and coach industry.

The operators all spoke about expanding their services but stressed that a “recruitment crisis” is stifling their capacity.

‘Crisis in recruitment and retention’

Dublin Bus has recruited 870 drivers and 40 mechanics in the last year, Chief Executive Billy Hann detailed, including 94 women after a targeted recruitment campaign.

However, Hann said that the “success of our recruitment campaigns should not overshadow the ongoing challenge posed by the prevailing skill shortage affecting not only Dublin Bus but also the wider transport sector”.

Go-Ahead Ireland told the committee that it has built a team of 800 staff across 33 routes in the five years since it began operations.

“Our efforts are ongoing concerning driver positions, where we are making continued progress. However, like other operators and the overall transport sector, we have noted a lower level of available qualified HGV mechanics,” Managing Director Dervla McKay said this afternoon.

“While this is currently having a limited impact, it remains a live area of concern. We are taking steps now in terms of our ongoing recruitment campaigns and our apprenticeship scheme to sustain a future pipeline of suitably qualified and trained technical experts.”

At Bus Éireann, staff shortages were an acute issue last autumn, initially for school bus contractors and then for mechanics in the Dublin depot and drivers in the Cork depot, which impacted service delivery, the committee heard.

Bus Éireann is struggling to recruit qualified licence holders due to the limited pool of drivers available and the high demand across the sectors, while mechanics are also in short supply, particularly in Cork and Dublin.

The national operator has recruited nearly 500 drivers since the beginning of 2023 but still has 66 vacancies across the country.

“We have started and will continue with our intensive recruitment campaign. We have deployed extensive advertising and undertaken over 30 open days this year alone,” said Stephen Kent, CEO of Bus Éireann.

“We are also working with agencies who have networks outside Ireland to try and recruit drivers from other countries and will need to step up this activity.”

“Over the next three years, due to retirements and new services, I believe we will need well in excess of 2,000 drivers for PSO and School Transport services. This level of demand requires a more concerted and structured programme, directed at employment creation where there is huge demand and urgent need for drivers with aptitude who will find a very rewarding career with competitive pay in companies like ours.”

Similarly, Managing Director of Wexford Bus Brendan Crowley, representing the Coach Tourism and Transport Council, outlined that the “ongoing skills shortage combined with competition from other industries such as the logistics industry, has resulted in a crisis in the recruitment and retention of drivers – and particularly younger drivers”.

“The industry does however, face considerable barriers to continued growth and sustained service provision,” Crowley said, which he attributed in part to the “older age profile of our drivers” but said it is “owing more to the excessive time delays and associated costs of license”.

Traffic congestion

There was consensus among the bus operators that traffic congestion, especially in Dublin and other major cities, is seriously affecting the provision of timely services.

Billy Hann of Dublin Bus petitioned the committee members to support action to reduce congestion in the capital city.

He described the dominance of private cars in Dublin as the “biggest barrier” to faster and more reliable bus services, adding that cars using the city as a route to reach a destination outside of the centre “take up vital road space and increase journey times for people using Dublin Bus”.

“Moving this traffic out of the city, as the National Transport Authority/Dublin City Council Transport Plan seeks to do, should not impact economic activity or cultural life – it should improve it,” Hann said.

“Today, it can take up to 29 minutes to travel just 10km in Dublin. This is clearly not going to convince people to leave the car at home. I find this doubly frustrating because the reason for this slow progress is mostly congestion caused by cars. Ask yourself this, is it right that a line of cars with an average of one occupant per vehicle delays a bus with 85 people on it?”