JJ Kavanagh & Sons Reviews 

Best friend se hi

I got the bus from Portlaoise to Kildare Village and on the return trip got up just before my stop to let the driver know I was getting off. He roared at me to "Sit down please" and before I had a chance to sit down in the front seat he roared again "Sit Down" like he was talking to a dog. He totally humiliated and embarrassed me in front of all the other passengers. All he needed to say was would I mind sitting down due to safety concerns. These drivers need lessons in how to deal with customers in a polite manner as we are the ones keeping you in your jobs by using this service. Very disappointed

Worst bus service in the whole world.
Always late or no show

I had an extremely disappointing experience with this company. On 23rd November 2025 at 19:30 at the Dublin George’s Quay (Ulster Bank) stop, the driver refused to let my small 11 year old Shih Tzu on the bus, even though he travels inside a closed pet bag, is calm, and has an emotional support certificate.

At first he just said, “I can’t take your dog.” After calling someone from the company, he came back saying he could only take guide dogs, completely ignoring the fact that my dog had official documentation and that I had already traveled with the same company from the airport under the exact same conditions with no issues. One driver allows it, another refuses it, totally incoherent and unprofessional.

He even laughed during the call, didn’t explain the situation properly, showed no empathy, and left us standing in the rain with no solution. We also mentioned it was the last option for us to go back home to Carlow. My dog wasn’t going to bother anyone, he stays quietly in his bag on my lap, but the driver simply didn’t care.

This lack of respect, consistency, and mindfulness towards passengers is unacceptable. The company urgently needs to revise its policies and train drivers to apply them coherently and respectfully.

bus time for 9.55PM on 14th of november friday at roscrea location had a bus driver who passed me & my partner and the little one whos 7 with extreme asthma running down the hill right at the corner where bus stops 3 mins away tops, in the cold weather and rain,he saw us and sped up as we heard the engine rev more just after he had looked at us directly after flagging him down im sure with the time and location given you know this bus driver young and a good bit of weight on him alot have complained the same driver believe it or not, by the time people get on and off and luagage and 3 mins running at the corner we should have caught him but he sped up like we said and an old woman was very upset by this, in the cold & rain and im personally going to put this up on my business page the paper and tipp fm this is how much that this bus driver and jj kavanaghs who employed him annoyed not just me and my family and the little ones asthma and how the bus driver seen us and sped up after running and flagging him down 3 mins away, but what annoyed me the most was the old woman she looked so cold wet and sad this is not just direspectfuly awful but very unprofessional and bad for business we should of had time, we were seconds away as he pulled of again we seen him 10-15 feet away, those seconds could have stopped all of this for more reason the one, as if he couldnt wait any longer jj kavanaghs is always late??? one day i waited two hours? and its never on time always late or later? so yes he could of stopped, im not the only one waiting to see him and trust me if this man is not gone i will do all the above and file court proceedings, how dare you, i will be patient this is just the start of it, ill share this experience to fine detail everyday and repost the same review every day on and off this review site with great passion until i die, im all about princapil you messed with the wrong guy and his family & that poor old woman, i expect an appropriate responce from jj kavanaghs if not this will make things worse by right been one of the victims who choose to speak up. also time is ticking.

That award is not worth the paper its written on the awarding body clearly do not know the lies and deceit of this service and company , on the 6/11/25 my self and my partner were waiting for the service to Dublin airport the 4pm journey with pre booked tickets we saw the coach approaching from the roundabout by shaws in Waterford City, we stepped forward with our bags but the coach drove past Dooleys in the outside lane without stopping my partner managed to catch up the coach due to the traffic lights changing he knocked on the door the driver would not open the door but asked him to go to his window in the mainstream traffic he showed him our pre booked tickets explained about our flights in Dublin he said there was nothing he could do and drove off in traffic, we missed our flights in Dublin to Liverpool had to board a train to Dublin get a bus from station to airport spend all night in the airport book additional flights to get home and pay the parking charge for our car that had not been picked up the previous evening, I raised a formal complaint with the company in a email which I then had to follow up for a reply, I received a email this evening from Paul one of the company's managers who said the bus pulled into Dooleys picked up 4 passengers and 4 tickets, complete lies we were standing waiting and moved forward to let the driver know we needed picking up but the driver ignored us and drove past, this is appauling service and driver misconduct from a company who are advertising this award for customer care, I've used this service for years as my family have, I will seek futher evidence in cctv footage of the bus speeding past the Dooleys stop, I was left completely out of pocket for a failed service I can only think the Driver allowed other passengers on board ignoring the protocol for pre booked passengers for the airport.

I need the 139 bus which only comes once per hour in order to get to college. I get it Monday - Thursday and it has not failed to be late EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. It is meant to arrive at 7:38 but instead it always arrives at around 7:51 without fail. If that isn’t bad enough, the lovely bus has driven by me twice in the past month despite me putting my hand out. Now I cant make it to my class on time, many thanks to this great company and their incredibly punctual buses 😐😐. Seriously, what do they expect you to do when this bus comes ONCE every HOUR and it drives by you?? It also was extremely full for weeks during September to the point where I was standing nearly every day & instead of running more buses during this time they just did nothing about the issue. I’ve also watched it leave TUD at 3:57 even though the bus was meant to get there at 4 & saw people miss their bus. I watched the same driver who ignored me today drive by a lot of people who were waiting for the 139 at Blanchardstown shopping centre a few weeks ago too.

I've been using the 717 (Dublin/Clonmel) JJ Kavanagh service on a regular basis over the last number of weeks and have been highly disappointed with the service and punctuality of departures. What I've to say isn't much different to the rest of the reviews so I'll keep it brief.

- If you're tight on time you cannot rely on JJ Kavanagh. Their buses cannot even depart from the start point punctually. How can they ever expect to be on time in that instance.

- They advertise having toilets on board. It's a roll of the dice whether it's open for use on any given service. And if it is open for use it will likely be disgusting.

- Their drivers are either the nicest people on the planet or uninterested and rude. There's no in-between.

- Culture in companies feed from the top. It's obvious from my interactions with their office (2 times) and their drivers, that the company culture in JJ Kavanagh drives the poor (government funded) service they provide.

Changing booking details.
I tried to change booking details as the date of my trip to Dublin was changed. For all future dates I tried it kept saying no availability.
Next time I'll be booking the train.

Highly Highly recommended avoiding kavanaghs, constantly late arriving into Dublin, especially the early morning service, which is the most necessary to be on time, plus they now refuse to accept cash. AVOID KAVANAGHS, Dublin coach are far better

Rang to find out time bus time and whoever answered me was so rude and didnt wait for me to get reassurance on the time table very rude now

Route 735 is constantly late and unreliable.

It’s not even worth a one we were sitting for 50 mins and the bus never showed up absolutely ridiculous and we were scammed never using this company again DO NOT RECOMMEND

The buss service is always great I get it on a Saturday morning, but it’s redlicious that’s the all the busses don’t take card or leap care I got on a buss one week and they were only taking card no cash and then the following week they weren’t taking card or leap card and I had to run into a Shop to get cash it’s unacceptable

I would to give 0 to this company but I can't so I'll give a well deserved 1. Last Wednesday I was at Dublin airport at 2 o'clock and the driver didn't let me in because bus was full even if I explained him that I've already bought the ticket in advance. Long story short, I gave priority to people that were in a queue just before me even if they didn't have the ticket. I was on time at the parking and buying the ticket in advance should prevent this type of issues, ticket should guaranty a seat even if there a people before you. DRIVER SHOULD HAVE GIVEN PRIORITY TO PEOPLE WITH TICKET. So I missed the bus and I waited for the next one at 5.45.

Their buses just don't turn up and leave children waiting at a bus stop for hours into the evening

Can anyone explain why a long distance service for the airport (presumably aimed at people coming from outside dublin on their way to trips abroad) has to pass through the most traffic heavy part of Dublin so that it can collect a couple of extra people who could take other buses that are short distance? It makes the service so long and unreliable. And it raises the costs because of the tunnel. Plus, on today’s trip the whole bus stank of sewer, I guess thanks to a too full tank in the toilet? It was hell. Time Ireland graduates to this century in terms of transport it’s unbelievable

I’ve been taking JJ Kavanagh & Sons for approximately 4 years to get to Dublin from Waterford, never had an issue with any of the other bus drivers but just this one bald driver.

If you don’t have your young adult leap card with you this bus driver will not let you on the bus till you pay for an adult ticket. I was heading to Waterford from Dublin and during this time I had lost my leap card (I had already called in for a new one but it just hadn’t arrived yet). I’d already paid for my ticket online but the driver wouldn’t let me on the bus till I showed him my leap card. I had explained the situation to him and his response was that because his machine is showing red he couldn’t let me on the bus. So on top of paying for the young adult ticket, I had to pay for the adult ticket. Couldn’t he had let me pay the difference??? I’ve taken the bus with other drivers before and they’ve never asked for my leap card so why is it only him that I have to show my card to???

Another issue with him was that a woman on the bus today (it was the bus at 15:45 from Waterford to Dublin) was calling someone. He had pulled in and told her that she was being annoying and had only 10 minutes to talk to the person on the phone. Very rude. Like I’ve said I’ve taken JJ Kavanagh & Sons numerous of times, other drivers had never had an issue with passengers calling someone it’s just him who seems to have a problem.

These are just the main issues I had with him. I’m writing this complaint because I’m getting sick and tired of him. Anytime I’ve taken the bus with him there seems to be an issue whether it be with his attitude or something else. I also have friends who take JJ Kavanagh & Sons and they’ve had the same complaints about him as I have.

Do better with your staff!!

First of all: I welcome the fact that there is public transport in Ireland at all – unfortunately, it's completely privatized for profit rather than public and of the appropriate quality. I've used Kavanagh's buses there frequently in recent days. The bus drivers do their best. But 1) the buses are completely unpunctual, and 2) sometimes you just have to rely on your luck – for example, if you want to go from Dublin Heuston to Kilkenny. There are several stops in the right direction, but none are marked with "Kavanagh." You simply have to "know" that Kavanagh is serving one of the many route numbers posted there.
Furthermore – and this is even more important for this bad review – young people and students (theoretically) receive a significant discount (good). And if tickets are purchased online, there's an additional discount. That's only the theory. If you then try to buy tickets online (with different smartphones/tablets, with different browsers, and with different credit cards), it simply doesn't work. A tragedy.
Expropriate these profit-hungry private companies and establish a functioning public system. Better yesterday than today.

Got the bus from Dublin airport to Kilkenny ormonde road, and the bus driver was driving so so slowly we left the airport at 5pm and didn’t arrive in Kilkenny until 7:45pm when it’s only meant to take 1hr and 45 minutes. Absolute disgrace of a service and needs to be time managed