How Sineád O’Sullivan thinks Dublin Bus can save millions—by channeling the Michael O’Leary playbook

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by The Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

Dublin Bus recently announced a €15,000 prize for public suggestions to improve the city’s bus system. While public input is valuable, the core issue isn’t a lack of ideas. Dublin’s traffic and transport challenges have been studied extensively, with countless reports, pilots, and international case studies. What’s missing is not creativity, but the authority and willingness to take decisive action. You, as a member of the public, may feel this initiative shifts responsibility rather than invites real participation.

One of the biggest issues is that Dublin asks commuters to give up cars before providing them with a truly reliable public transport alternative. The article argues that pricing strategies like congestion charges only work when people have access to better options. Cities like London and Stockholm implemented bus prioritization first—creating faster, more consistent bus lanes—before introducing pricing. When buses were clearly the better choice, public behavior followed. Dublin, instead, attempts these steps in reverse, leading to public resistance and limited results.

The real problem is poor enforcement and fragmented responsibility across transport governance. Existing bus lanes are frequently ignored, and penalties for violations are weak or nonexistent. You see this in how the city defaults to consultations and reports instead of enforcement and accountability. The current €15,000 ideas prize continues this trend, spreading responsibility so thin that no one remains clearly accountable for results.

To genuinely fix Dublin’s bus network, a better approach would be focused, operational action. That means making buses consistently faster than cars on major routes by strictly enforcing priority lanes. Once reliability is achieved, you can then introduce congestion pricing effectively—not as punishment, but as reinforcement. In short, if you’re looking for what really works, it’s not more ideas—it’s political will and enforcement.