An allegation by the Fine Gael public enterprise spokesman that a new fleet of buses is unsafe because interior lights blind the driver has been rejected by Dublin Bus management as "outrageous".
Mr Jim Higgins had alleged that a small number of Dublin Bus drivers had complained about the AV double-decker buses, which are accessible to wheelchair users. "They cannot operate with full passenger lighting because the reflection on the left-hand side of the bus literally blinds the driver. As a result, the lighting has to be turned off," he claimed.
However, both Dublin Bus and the National Bus and Rail Union dismissed Mr Higgins's safety concerns. "This is a lot of rubbish. We are talking about four drivers complaining out of 2,500," said the union's president, Mr Martin Byrnes.
A company spokesman, Mr Christy Dorman, said 185 of the AV buses were in Dublin Bus service. The model makes up three-quarters of all doubledeckers in service in the Republic and the UK.
Last year, Dublin Bus took four of the buses on trial, he said, after which it sought modifications from the manufacturer, which were completed under warranty on all of the other buses before they came into service. The modification included a blind for the driver's cab. In addition, drivers were instructed to move their windscreen visor "a fraction lower".
A British motor safety company, MIRA, was hired to check on the modifications. In a report submitted to a management/ union committee yesterday, it noted - according to Dublin Bus - "a moderate potential" for problems in unmodified vehicles. However, the changes had "largely eliminated" the problem, the report said.
