It would appear that the Green Party roll-over is now complete, with commuters across the Greater Dublin area still reeling from the news as Dublin Bus confirmed that its fleet will be reduced by 10 per cent, with the removal of 120 vehicles.
Dublin Bus has indicated that there will be “service and network level adjustments” to bus routes across the city. This coming from a coalition Government with a party that promised us ‘Green Politics, Clean Politics’.
On top of this, Dublin Bus workers have learned the grim news that staffing levels will be reduced by 10 per cent at the company, with the loss of 290 jobs. Dublin Bus management has also deferred the 2009 national pay award for staff. This must be galling for workers who have gone through years of chronic under-investment in pubic transport throughout the State, and particularly in the capital.
Dublin Bus is clearly operating in very difficult circumstances and has estimated a potential loss of €31m in 2009. Yet public transport subsidies for CIE companies remain some of the lowest across the European Union’s 27 states. The Government also abolished the public transport fuel rebate late last year, even though CIE indicated the loss of this rebate would add millions in additional costs to CIE companies in 2009.
The slashing of bus routes and services is a devastating blow for commuters and will particularly hit low-income workers, many of whom have no option but to use public transport to get to work. Commuters had already been hit with a fare hike of 10 cent on 1 January, which is becoming something of an annual occurrence.
However, what is most astonishing about this situation is that the Green Party members of Government are prepared to support the decimation of critical public transport services across Dublin. Astonish-ingly, these proposals come just a few months after the all-party Dáil Transport Comm-ittee recommended to Minister Dempsey and his colleagues that the Dublin Bus fleet be expanded by 350 buses, with significantly increased frequencies and new orbital routes to provide more choice and reliability for commuters.
But Green ministers now appear to have totally abandoned all of their core principles and policies in their desperation to stay in power with this increasingly discredited, incompetent and shambolic Government. Unfortunately, the legacy of their surrender will be untold long-term damage to communities across Ireland as critical public transport services are cancelled or severely cut back.
Cutbacks of this magnitude are totally at odds with national transport, environment and climate change policies aimed at getting commuters out of their cars and onto public transport in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is also notable that the public subsidy to Dublin Bus is one of the lowest for a capital city public transport operator in the European Union.
If this Government is really committed to persuading more people to use public transport, they should do what other transport operators do and provide for a drop in fares, rather than an increase. In 2007 Labour proposed a €1 flat fare for the entire Dublin Bus network, and it is high time for that proposal to be revisited by the Government once again.
Typically this announcement has been made at the time when the Dáil is not in session, and so the Government cannot be held accountable by the opposition in the national parliament. Is there anything left for the Greens to capitulate on?
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a primary school principal in the Sheriff Street area of Dublin, a member of the Labour Party, and formerly Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor. His column appears every week in Metro Éireann
