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NEW FIGURES SHOW that the amount of time people spent travelling to work in Ireland has slightly increased over the past decade.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), it shifted from 26.6 minutes to 29.1 minutes between 2011 and 2022.
They also that the number who reported commuting by car fell slightly – from 66 per cent in 2016 to 63 per cent last year,.
Meath had the longest commute to work at an average of 35 minutes, followed by workers in Kildare and in Wicklow.
So, today we’re asking: Are you happy to commute to work?
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The question should be “Are you happy to waste away your life time sitting excessively in traffic jams or smelly public transport, just to meet colleagues with whom you achieve absolutely nothing, other than complaining about the traffic, and checking attendance boxes.”
@Peter Murray: I see that the resident tr.oll is busy today.
@Peter Murray: Employers have to commute too! Duh!!!!
@smatrix mantra: The entire problem right here, watch as people reel back against any idea that changes it tho. We’re institutionalised livestock.
@Peter Murray: It’s a good question though. I work with someone who has a 2.5 hr commute both ways so that is 5 hours total a day for work that this individual could be doing at home. On the days that this individual works from home thr employer easily gets an extra hour or two of work either side of the 9-5 arrangement. Also long commutes just add unnecessary stress and frazzle and leave employees just generally below par so if you are an employer thar thinks frazzled, stressed, tired employees are rge best fit for your Firm then maybe add that in to your hiring document.
It’s now taking an hour to go from most anywhere in the City to the motorway, between 4 and 7pm.
Absolutely awful experience. So much law breaking and dangerous behaviour as a result.
And this is repeated around the country. Endless traffic. Endless frustration. Zero Gardai on hand to enforce laws or provide help with traffic flow.
And no viable public transport options in 99% of the country.
Years of disasterous policies creating generations of wasted time and money.
@Chris O’Brien: It starts building from 3:30.
No, I hate it. I live just outside Urlingford in Kilkenny and it takes 90 minutes to get in (even longer if there’s a crash or traffic on the M7) and 90 minutes home. We can’t afford to move closer and most of our savings gets poured into petrol. And yes, it’s 5 days a week- my job doesn’t offer blended work.
@Wicked Hedgehog: you have the right to request remote working by law.
@Declan Gibney: But he’s a barman, that’s going to be tough.
@The Green Monkey: If he has to serve from home than I hope he doesn’t drink all the leftovers.
@Declan Gibney: yes, he has the right to request it, not the right to have it unfortunately. That law is a joke.
@Peter Murray: Jesus, you kick off early don’t ya?
@Peter Murray: Lol! Isn’t that the dream? more money less work, me me me? Like that’s literally a free market capitalist?
@Peter Murray: anyone who wants to be in the office all day hopes that their presenteeism will distract from the fact they do very little. Any middle manager who wants employees in is trying to show that their supervision is the only reason work can get done and the justification for their existence.
@Declan Gibney: the code of practice for this hasn’t been put in place yet by the WRC, so no, they don’t have the right to request by law… yet. The bill was passed in April and we’re still waiting for the WRC to get their shit together.
Fffg /g cutting our roads in half 5min traffic lights unused cycle tracks and plastic bollards everywhere non existent or unsafe public transport the D4 mafia are killing us changes need to happen
@James Delaney: Who are the D4 mafia?!
@James Delaney: I see you blame the cycle tracks. When I last commuted in Dublin the long drive sometimes took longer than cycling it. Give it a try.
@James Delaney: it would be nice if cyclists failing to use available cycle tracks as made an offence. Far too many don’t have the brainpower to choose to use them for their own safety.
@Jason Memail: At a wild guess, I’d say the D4 mafia are the patrons and hangers-on of FG, FF and the Green Party who live in the leafy suburbs of south Dublin and profit from their properties around the city.
Live in Galway, traffic is a nightmare and been ignored by the powers that be for 20 years or more now. An accident in Galway means traffic literally stops. Has, more than a few times taken me an hour and 20 mins to travel 12 miles. Regularly 50 mins. Its such a waste of time and fuel, not to mention the emissions.
@Daniel Gilroy: I moved up 21 years ago and the front page of the newspaper was about the new ring road being built. No sign of road because of “environmental issues” but they built a wind farm and dug up the route to lay infrastructure to send that power to Britain. Forget a minor crash if it rains, which tends to happen a bit, traffic is standstill. Even the extra lanes through westside are left as barriers after the “monorail” dream fell apart.
@Daniel Gilroy: Could you use an electrics scooter or a biker with a motor?
@Daniel Gilroy: All be under water in a hundred years. Invest in a kayak!
Can you believe the US would use their veto at the UN to facilitate the mass killing of children to continue?
When the leaders of the world a void of morality, it’s up to the people to set them straight.
@Dissasociated Follower: are
@Dissasociated Follower: are devoid
@Michael Gantly: “void is sufficient but thanks for your input.
@Dissasociated Follower: good of you to finally notice… The US has been vetoing things re Israel for the entire history of the UN, more or less.
“Over the past five decades, the United States has vetoed at least 53 UN Security Council resolutions critical of Israel.”
That’s over one per year, for 50 years.
Doing the opposite would be shocking. This is business as normal.
@Deathrow For palestine Lovers: Deflection and whatabouterry. We can see g.e.n.o.c.i.d.e on our phones every day. There is no justification for that.
Unfortunately I have to drive most of the time and if you’re not on the m50 before 7 am it’s a carpark. Sometimes if you’re unlucky it’s at a standstill even before 7 am and in the afternoons doesn’t seem to matter what time you leave work, what should take 35 minutes always takes over an hour.
I’ve often wondered if motorways could be sped up by having self-driving cars centrally coordinated on motorways. It would be less stressful – maybe the best of both worlds?
E bike. 13km each way and around 35 minutes regardless of weather. I love passing long lines of traffic while drowning in smugness.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Yep. 11 minutes on a scooter. No such thing as traffic.
@stephen deegan: if all those people in cars got out and bought e bikes or scooters you can bet your bottom dollar there’d be traffic. Ever been to Vietnam? Enjoy it while you can.
Id be happier driving to work if lane hoggers and those doing under the speed limit would stick to the left lane
@he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s:
Drivers who think the outside lane is for driving in on motorway’s and won’t move in ‘ it’s a passing lane ‘ get in lane
@Mark Breathnach: they are the most annoying drivers, then when you flash them to move they will brake check you
@he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s: The ‘regulators’ they’re called, wannabe cops delighted to impose themselves on road users around them. Easily the most dangerous driver on the road.
I work on shift, all the bus lanes have gone to 24hrs in the last few weeks, port tunnel toll has gone up and there is no improvement to the public transport system. I work in Dublin South docks commuting from North Co.Dublin. I would happy take public transport but it is not feasible with the hours I work. More 24hr service is needed.
I am not from Dublin, but for the life of me, I could never figure out why the only ones that can live in Dublin are the very rich and the ones that pay very little.
The commuters are the ones paying for a lot of this.
@Donal Ronan: I’m not rich nor are any of my friends or family and we all live in Dublin. Some friends bought way out beyond the M50 because they wanted a bigger house when they could have afforded somewhere smaller in less salubrious parts of Dublin, the option I took and I couldn’t be happier. Unfortunately you can’t have your cake and eat it sometimes.
@Deathrow For palestine Lovers: rich don’t pay more road tax
@Mark Breathnach: I wonder I’d that has anything to do with the fact there is no such thing as a road tax?
@Deathrow For palestine Lovers: in actual fact the richest often pay no taxes at all…
-140 high net worth individuals, or 42 per cent of the total, had taxable income of less than €125,000.
-of these 140, 83 had taxable income of less than the average industrial wage – just over €36,500.
-90 taxpayers in the group paid income tax at a lower rate than the average taxpayer.
The rich aren’t great at paying taxes – or caring about society in general – but they are good at PRETENDING they’re martyrs.
@Deathrow For palestine Lovers: You are entitled to your opinion as is everyone. But the one thing I never do, is insult people.
You and your ilk could be one of the reasons the comments section is being slowly shut down.
@Donal Ronan: I live within 25 minute walk of the GPO and like others chose convenience over space.
I don’t mind going in one day every week but get nothing done too many interruptions and ‘collaborating’ so you need to work extra from home to catch up. Then have to leave at 2pm to keep to 2 hour commute instead of 3 plus if you leave at 4.30/5pm
@Fiona Wyse: Leaving at 2pm might be why you get nothing done.
@Shane O Neill: Would depend on the start time no?
@Shane O Neill: I start work at 7 with 30 minute break. So leaving at 2pm is not the issue. I log on when I get home so still doing my 7.30hrs plus. Sorry to disappoint you!
@Podge: Exactly! Plus I work while on the bus, the joys of a tablet and a vdi.
@Fiona Wyse: what are you telling lies for even on the worse days it doesn’t take 3 to get to navan
@Martin Mongan: Door to Door it has taken me 3 hours to get home. Why would one lie about that in public? I have no reason to lie. Doesn’t achieve anything but thanks for your input.
I commute from Duleek in to Dublin, and while the journey in isn’t too bad, as I go start of route (for getting seat), the journey home is a nightmare. We can’t even be sure the bus will turn up to go to Duleek with services often cancelled without announcement, rarely on time if they do turn up, or the bus may not have the capacity to carry all passengers which mostly go to Ashbourne – either by size or seats not being present that should be. Due to this it’s like feeding time at the zoo trying to get on the bus at Beresford Place.
It was a bad enough service before the pandemic; like everything post-pandemic, it has worse it is and not fit for purpose.
It’s completely counterproductive in most cases, a waste of time and money, stressful, and very bad for the environment. Where working from home is possible, it should always be a matter of individual choice to commute. ‘Hybrid’ is an arbitrary nonsense.
It’s only two days a week for me, the other three I can work from home so I’ve no real complaints.
I think my favourite commute was a 15min walk from the museum in Edinburgh to the top of leith where I was staying, my least favourite was a 2 and a half hour each way by boat and train in Sydney..
If Leo Vradaker was really sincere about the safety of medical staff in Dublin hospitals, he would provide free and secure car parking for them. it costs an outrageous 16 euro a day at the hospitals.
That leaves staff vulnerable on the streets, especially given early and late night shifts.
@Pat Redmond: that is absolutely despicable and that’s the type of thing that I would like to see my taxes go towards, helping people in that situation be able to park to do their job.
@Pat Redmond: But is Leo not the saviour of “the early riser” as he put it? None of are political class are doers, they’re all talk, in fact, they don’t even have ideas, the dail is pretty much a PR company.
@Pat Redmond: should all workers not be treated the same? Garda are probably the most vulnerable workers and no mention of them.
@Pat Redmond: Hear, hear. No hospital staff should have to pay to park at work. Especially given the hours they have to work.
I’ve been working from home since 2005,
four employers so far with the last change of job at the height of COVID.
In the past I’ve commuted by road and by air (contracting in mainland Europe coming home at weekends), it’s all a tedious waste of time.
What are all these polls “Are you happy?” FFS A recent poll discovered that six out of seven dwarves are not happy.
@Larry Betts: that one took me a minute.
The research found that people who live further from work spend more time commuting LOL
New poll: should I have a steak the size of a toilet seat? Yes lol
@Harry Cock: oh no, it’s back again.
No traffic at 5:30am heading to work. No traffic at 2:30pm going home . Love it. But after those hours traffic in Dublin is an absolute nightmare …
@Auntie Says So: It’s like queuing to get the boat, for some reason all commercial transport HAS to be on the road at the same time as commuters.
Dont mind the drive, mind the price of fuel though.
Pmsl, like any wasters on here work lol
I have a great employer that recognises that our jobs can be done remotely and that this capitalises on time that would ordinarily have been wasted on commuting.
@Fintan Stack: Great to see that happening. It’s also invaluable in winter when people can work from home safely instead of commuting in storms on icy roads.
It’ll drive you mad if you look at it as lost time.
It’s vital to look make it “you” time..Read a good book if you can, enjoy the papers, listen to good podcasts if you can.
Certainly don’t spend all your time listening to the radio or browsing twitter or tiktok which will undoubtedly make you feel awful about wasting your life away.
Pretend you are Don Draper reading the newspaper on the train in the morning if you have to :-)
@Jimmy The Mink: When driving? I’d rather that time to go for a walk with my dogs or pretty much anything.
No comments on the football wtf
I answered “yes I enjoy people bla bla bla” but real sarcastic like
Takes me an hour in regular traffic (45 minutes when the kids are off school, a blissful situation where everyone’s lives are better because someone needs to stay home with little Timmy), and infinty+ when incapable drivers ruin the journey for 10′s of thousands of others. Dont mind it, I travel from West Wicklow to the city. Colleagues living IN the city take longer to get in, also by car (the Dub loves to drive 30 seconds around the corner, or 2 hours as it is lol). Would prefer the train but there’s not enough parking at the nearest station that accepts leap AND it’s still a heap more expensive than heated seats, coffee and a podcast, a way to go on track here. They should have built a light rail system down the middle of the M/N7 30 years ago, but you know what we’re like… “I’m not paying for that” visionless small nation bs. Don’t mind it ultimately, only a few days a week in the kip, but you do see the rage that’s building out there, it will keep coming and there will be more violence, accidents and angry people, but we deserve it for all the nothing that we do.
@Thesaltyurchin: You’re right. We could have had construction workers set up light rail decades ago and we’d all be better off. And now they couldn’t afford to live here & would have to sleep in their vans to get the tracks laid.
Two days a week in the office maximum, 25 minutes drive door to door. There’s a lot to be said for living in the mid West region.
As a Luas driver I have to be working at peak times so I am always commuting off-peak. It’s well paid you should try it.
have your say