Businesses in Dublin city centre have seen a significant impact on footfall as a result of the Dublin Bus strikes, business group DublinTown has claimed.

The first of the three planned strike actions by the transport workers in a dispute over pay, which took place last week, caused footfall in the city to drop by 9 per cent compared with the previous week. However, the action also took place during the Dublin Fashion Festival, which the group said would yield additional foot traffic. The group estimated it should have created an additional 8 per cent in footfall. That pushed the decline to 17 per cent overall for September 8th and 9th.

“Footfall was up every day that week except for the days of industrial action. Comparing Monday - Wednesday and Saturday - Sunday with the strike day figures, we can see a swing of 12 per cent,” DublinTown said.

The group said 90 per cent of members it surveyed said sales were down on the days of the strike, with convenience stores worst hit by the action. They saw a fall off in sales of up to 40 per cent, but the most typical decline was 20 to 25 per cent.

“DublinTown fears a prolonged bus strike,” said DublinTown chief executive Richard Guiney. “In a survey conducted by Millward Browne on behalf of the National Transport Authority in December 2014, it was found that 42 per cent of people coming to the city to shop and socialise use the bus. Experience of previous strikes suggest that we stand to lose 40-60 per cent of those customers. This has the potential to give rise to a reduction in sales of 15-20 per cent. Such losses are unsustainable.”

He called on all involved to settle the dispute “sooner rather than later”. Buses stopped at 9pm on Wednesday night ahead of the 48-hour stoppage by drivers .

Further strikes are planned for Friday and Saturday of next week, September 23rd and 24th.

Staff at Dublin Bus are currently into the second round of two-day strikes, with up to 400,000 people facing disruption.

Staff are planning to significantly escalate industrial action next month, with more than 10 further days of strikes planned for October.