Ó Muirí calls on Dublin Bus to “step up” to improve Northside bus services

Fine Gael TD Naoise Ó Muirí has criticised his government colleagues for allowing Northside bus services to slip.

Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday (February 4), the Dublin Bay North TD highlighted failures on the number 15 route from Clongriffin to Ballycullen Road.

Ó Muirí and local councillor Supirya Singh have noted a steady increase in correspondence and complaints from constituents about the service deteriorating.

Ó Muirí grilled Fine Gael colleague Emer Higgins on why the number 15 has seen a slip in quality, with Ó Muirí noting “people are experiencing frequent no-shows, last-minute cancellations, long gaps between buses and, of course, the so-called ghost bus services that appear as due on the TFI Live app but never arrive.”

He cited the 6320 stop, on the Hole In The Wall Road, as a particular twilight zone for commuters.

“They can experience two or even three consecutive buses failing to show and wait times of 30-40 minutes, often in heavy rain and poor weather and without a structure at the stop to protect them,” he said.

“These delays are causing problems. People are missing work. They are missing educational opportunities. They are missing school. They are missing medical appointments and childcare commitments. It is made worse by the lack of that shelter.”

He noted that councillor Singh has been corresponding with the NTA on the issue, but said that the responses from the NTA have been “unsatisfactory.”

Ó Muirí’s points on NTA responses being “unsatisfactory” were echoed elsewhere on the Northside – as reported in the Jan 27 edition of the Northside People West, Fingal County Council members in Dublin 15 said that the NTA were “not listening to them.”

Sinn Féin councillor Angela Donnelly said that in her correspondence with the NTA, the organisation claimed that the number of requests and inquiries from elected representatives has caused a slowdown in response times, and in her view, less comprehensive or satisfactory replies.

Ó Muirí has put pressure on the NTA to “step up and play ball.”

“We get these responses to many Deputies in this House – that congestion is causing buses to miss return journeys; there are driver shortages and operational issues such as breakdowns or incidents in service. We all want good services. We want to fight for good services for our constituents.”

“A service like this is very important, and it is frustrating as a public representative, representing our constituents, that there appears to be so little progress in addressing the underlying problems. We should not accept the level of service that people have come to tolerate on some of these routes. I do not accept the level of service. I want the NTA to improve and to up its game, to step up and play ball. It must do better,” he said.

Since his election to the Dáil in November 2024, Ó Muirí has emerged as one of the few government TDs who treat climate change as an immediate threat, and not just something that is given vague lip service in press releases.

“If we are serious about meeting climate targets, and if we want to encourage people to make the famous modal shift whereby they get out of their car and onto a bus or a bike or they walk or take the train.”

“We have to make sure that public transport is not only available but that it works for people. It must come on time, arrive when it says it will and when it is meant to, and leave on time so that we can go to work on it and come home on it. Public transport must be reliable and work,” he said.

Junior minister Emer Higgins, filling in for Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, noted that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding of public transport, but does not have responsibility for or involvement in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. 

She said that issues pertaining to the day-to-day operation of public transport services lie with the NTA and not the Department of Transport itself.

Higgins noted “that being said, I would like to reassure the Deputy that the government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal.”

The minister noted that on the particular route, traffic speeds have seen a decrease of 5%, which contrasts with a 5% increase in traffic volume. 

The data revealed that in quarter 4 of 2026, there was a “significantly higher” amount of “lost kilometres” on the 15 route.

“That is heavily impacting both punctuality and reliability. They are the issues the Deputy has spoken about in regard to the constituents he mentioned who have missed work, school, appointments or other commitments. That is a direct result of the situation,” Higgins conceded.

The Dublin Mid-West TD said that a review into capacity and demand on the route is planned for later this year, an extra service is being added during evening hours from next week and a revised schedule is planned for September of this year – but Ó Muirí said that commuters can’t wait that long for systemic issues to be fixed.

Emails sent to Ó Muirí were read verbatim in the Dáil chamber; one constituent wrote, “there are now so many cancellations of the 15 because Dublin Bus fear getting a fine from the NTA for being outside the timetable and allowed tolerance arriving late/arriving early.”

“You are lucky if you see two or three in an hour, a long way off the published timetable, which at this stage is but a work of fiction. From January 1 to September 30, there were 2950 cancellations of the 15 route, making it the 4th most cancelled bus route in the city.”

An email sent to Ó Muirí on January 30 read, “this morning, I waited 50 minutes before a bus showed up (8am to 8.50am) – screen said 4 minutes for the duration of that time.”

“My sister also travels this same route and this week alone experienced: Tuesday – 1 hour and 15 minutes wait; Wednesday – 30 minutes wait; Thursday – 20 minutes wait and a broken-down bus; Today – broken down bus again. As a fare-paying customer, I expect a basic level of punctuality and reliability that is currently not being met by this service.”

Ó Muirí said, “they are just two examples of the many contacts councillor Singh and I have received. I welcome the response of the NTA in terms of additional capacity.”

“The NTA needs to up its game in this situation because the 15 above many other routes in the city, goes from Clongriffin, which is growing, all the way into the city centre. It is a vital route. It is a workhorse of a route for the area,” he stated.

Minister Higgins said, “the Deputy spoke of published timetables being a work of fiction. That is not acceptable. We need to get to a point where published timetables are reliable,” and that she would be raising Ó Muirí’s concerns directly with Minister O’Brien.