HAVE YOU BEEN rained on waiting for a bus recently? It might be because hardly any new bus shelters were built in Dublin in the last year. 

If this recent weather has shown us anything, it is how quickly we might need to take shelter from the storm, but according to figures from Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman, just three new bus shelters were built in the capital last year. 

This compares to a figure of 37 in 2024, 30 in 2023 and 23 post-covid in 2022.

While some bus stop furniture has been labelled as not functional, namely the single chairs that are being placed approximately six metres away from where a bus would typically open its doors, bus shelters are much needed infrastructure, according to O’Gorman.

“Bus shelters are the bare minimum that should be provided to commuters,” said O’Gorman.

The Green Party leader said there is a commitment in the Programme for Government to ensure that transport operators provide proper infrastructure for passengers, but he claims it has fallen by the wayside.

The number of bus shelters built in Dublin since 2018, according information provided by the National Transport Authority has dropped dramatically in the last year.

• 2018: 6
• 2019: 42
• 2020: 15
• 2021: 7
• 2022: 23
• 2023: 30
• 2024: 37
• 2025: 3

O’Gorman raised the matter with the Taoiseach in the Dáil this week, stating that the state agencies responsible for such infrastructure “need money”.

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The Taoiseach dismissed O’Gorman’s concerns, stating:

There is no shortage of money in the bloody system. Come on. Dáil Éireann should not have to discuss the provision of bus shelters.

The information on the number of bus shelters was contained in a reply to a question put to the Department of Transport following repeated requests by Green Party Councillor Oisín O’Connor to the NTA to provide bus shelters at busy stops where there was space to build them.

O’Connor said one of the reasons for delays is the slow planning process for each bus shelter. He said the government needed to speed up their delivery, and called for bus shelters to be exempt from planning.