I was just saying that last night - it is highly odd that the main urban rail service in a city the size of Dublin can only sustain 2-car service every 15 minutes off-peak. Personally, I think it is down to lack of frequency. The frequency of the bus service on nearby corridors is far higher than that of the DART. It also doesn't help that the city centre DART stations are not exactly in convenient locations.
But basic demand would also have made a huge difference. In the 80's there was no Sandyford, Dundrum, Liffey Valley, etc., taking traffic out of the city centre. In addition, a huge proportion of the younger people who would be using public transport to go out at night are now living in the city centre. Even if they were going out, the days of the pubs closing at roughly the same time as the last bus/DART are long past so people wouldn't be bothered with taking the DART in if they can't get it home. This is a common feature of Irish public-sector transport with the partial exception of Bus Éireann - everyone seems to want to get to bed early.
Finally, there used to be feeder buses for the DART which are long gone.
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