Irish Examiner view: This week’s news puts a spotlight on commuting

Sean O’Riordan reported that nearly 1,700 motorists whose cars have been damaged by potholes on Cork roads have claimed an average of €224 each from Cork County Council’s insurers in the last five years. Council figures show 1,667 claims made by motorists amounted to a combined payout of €373,324 between 2021 and last year. Picture: Andy Gibson.

Earlier this week Cianan Brennan informed readers of the specific extent of bus tardiness in Cork City. Regular users of the public transport system often complain about the unreliability of buses on Leeside, and their grumbling appears completely justified according to the evidence.

Bus Éireann was penalised over €735,000 for poor punctuality within Cork City two years ago, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told. The company faced almost €2.6m in deductions under its public service obligation contract with the National Transport Authority (NTA) due to poor timekeeping and services which were cancelled entirely.

The deductions were so extensive that the Department of Transport eventually had to cap them to avoid Bus Éireann making a loss, but that is a matter for another day. The figures shared by the PAC are a verification of the unhappiness of many bus users with the level of service.

However, another story should also be taken into consideration here. Sean O’Riordan reported that nearly 1,700 motorists whose cars have been damaged by potholes on Cork roads have claimed an average of €224 each from Cork County Council’s insurers in the last five years. Council figures show 1,667 claims made by motorists amounted to a combined payout of €373,324 between 2021 and last year.

Here we have bus services in the city and potholes in the county. These phenomena do not map onto each other directly, but issues with our physical infrastructure are not limited to any one municipal authority.

Clearly, deficiencies in that infrastructure are not the sole culprit when it comes to failures in bus punctuality, but they are certainly contributing to the challenges facing our public transport system.

Does another one of this week’s stories show us an alternative? Imasha Costa reported that the 2025 Walking and Cycling Index from the National Transport Authority shows some good news for the Cork region.

The NTA estimates that 82,000 cars are taken off the road in the Cork metropolitan area every day by people walking, wheeling, or cycling instead of driving, a huge boon to the region. Facilitating those who walk or cycle should underpin any future improvement of our transport infrastructure.

Wider effects of war against Iran

The conflict in Iran continues apace, and readers will be aware that that other parts of the region have already been affected. Tel Aviv in Israel has been hit by Iranian missiles, the US mission in Riyadh has come under drone attack, and there is chaos at Dubai International Airport, something which has affected many Irish residents and travellers.

The fact that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has almost ceased because of the conflict has implications far beyond the Middle East, given its importance for the transport of oil and liquefied natural gas.

Hence the warning yesterday from Taoiseach Micheál Martin against price gouging: “There is no excuse for prices going up at the pump yesterday or indeed anywhere, as our oil is coming from the North Sea.

“In relation to this, we met the competition and consumer authority yesterday and we have asked them to examine the industry and the sector, in terms of any unfair pricing practices.”

Ireland may be vulnerable to a rise in the price of natural gas in the medium term, and while it may be dispiriting to consider that some will choose to exploit a war to hike their prices, it is encouraging that the Government has been proactive in consulting the competition authority in this regard.

That was not the only note of warning sounded this week. The European Central Bank (ECB) has advised that higher eurozone inflation and reduced economic growth may be by-products of a prolonged war in the Middle East.

“Directionally, a jump in energy prices puts upward pressure on inflation, especially in the near-term, and such a conflict would be negative for economic activity,” ECB chief economist Philip Lane told the Financial Times.

“The scale of the impact and the implications for medium-term inflation depend on the breadth and duration of the conflict.”

All of us will be hoping that duration will be very short indeed.

Beat on the street is the difference

The suggestion that there has been a general decline in civic standards since the pandemic is one favoured by quite a few people, though the evidence for that belief can vary. Some point to careless drivers, others to users of public transport eschewing earphones.

Those who suggest that brazen shoplifting is now one of the hallmarks of social decay may feel vindicated by new research stating that alcoholic drinks are the most shoplifted product in Irish supermarkets.

Martin Claffey wrote here this week about one retailer, Kevin Herlihy, who with his brother Brian runs four Centra outlets in Cork City. Mr Herlihy estimated their shops are losing up to €1,000 per week in alcohol theft, with the security bill for those shops now approaching €250,000 per annum.

“Unfortunately, theft and security is now built into the business model, the very same as having a guy working the deli,” he said.

Clearly no business can sustain financial losses along those lines. It was good to read that Mr Herlihy credited higher garda numbers in Cork city centre with making a difference. An Garda Síochána launched a policing plan for the city in late November which includes 23 additional gardaí assigned to the operation every day — 11 gardaí during daytime hours and 12 at night. Visibility counts.

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