Kerry not alone in bus stop scheme delays as transport agency blamed in other counties

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

Bus stops have been at the top of the agenda for Kerry County Council’s elected members over the last six months, having raised a total of 13 motions and prompted hours of discussion during the county’s public meetings.

At the centre of the controversy is the Bus Stop Enhancement Programme announced by the National Transport Agency (NTA) at the start last year, which promised €500,000 to address 94 locations across the county.

At the time, 43 of the bus stops were ready for installation, with 27 to be installed by the council and 16 more to be installed by a NTA contractor.

A further 51 bus stops were to be installed after the required safety audits and approvals were received.

When the need for bus shelters at Ballybunion and Lixnaw village was raised by Listowel councillors, the NTA blamed staff turnover at Kerry County Council (KCC) which led the projects to have seemingly “fallen through the cracks”.

KCC shot back that the NTA were driving these particular bus stop installations and were responsible for appointing contractors.

“They’re not asking for anything fancy, just a regular bus shelter so they can stand out of the rain and the elements,” said Councillor Tom Barry.

At another meeting last year, Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae slammed the NTA for a two-year wait on bus stop signs in Farranfore.

The NTA had installed ground sockets in what they called the ‘first phase’ - the second phase being the erecting of the signage.

“Shame on them,” said Cllr Healy-Rae.

“It’s funny because how embarrassing it is at this stage, and how inept we are in getting simple things right.”

Councillors in Limerick expressed similar frustrations at delays to their bus shelter programme last year with Limerick council blaming the retendering of the NTA’s national bus shelter contract for the wait.

“It still remains to be seen that it could take upwards of two to three years to get a bus shelter installed in this day and age when we’re trying to encourage people out of their cars for lots of reasons, including environmental impact and congestion,” said Limerick councillor Sarah Kiely.

Cllr Kiely cited two cases where locals had been waiting around three years for bus stops to be installed. She called the process “totally mismanaged” at national level.

Limerick council said the new bus shelter contract has been awarded to Bower Media Outdoor for up to eight years and they expected installation to begin towards the end of 2025.

Louth County Council (LCC) have also come under criticism over their failure to spend the €500,000 fund which was allocated to each local authority in 2025.

Louth councillors heard, however, that the NTA didn’t have the specification ready to build the bus stops and thus none of the funding was spent.

Louth Councillor Declan Power called the failure “extremely disappointing” and asked why the council were waiting on new bus stop designs when they already had them.

“That is simply not good enough,” he said, “if design specifications were a problem why wasn't pressure put on NTA to present designs. What was wrong with the existing designs?”

“When funding like this is available, it should be treated as a priority. This is money for jam and someone dropped the ball.”