Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am here to ask that we have the Minister for Transport come before the House for a discussion on the transport and bus network in Dublin city. When I have submitted proposals for Commencement matters on this issue previously, I have been told it is not the Minister's issue, but the NTA reports to him and this organisation is bringing in major changes in this regard. From next Sunday, there will be eight route changes in Dublin city. In that context, the 17, 18 and 175 bus routes currently connect communities across Dublin city, including many people in south Dublin who attend UCD and the colleges in Dún Laoghaire. From next Sunday, though, those communities will not have this direct connectivity. People there will have to take two buses, when they only have to take one now.

The same thing is going to happen from next Sunday in Chapelizod. Last year, a decision was made to change the 25 bus route serving Chapelizod and to move it up onto the bypass or the N4 without the infrastructure to connect the people of Chapelizod and allow them to be able to get up onto the bypass to get the bus. There is now no bus stop. As a result, people in Chapelizod have had to take two buses. There is no secondary school in Chapelizod, so children there go out to schools in Leixlip and Lucan. There is no direct connectivity, so people have to take two buses. Equally, from next Sunday, the last remaining bus route that connects Chapelizod directly with Dublin city centre, the 26, is going to be utterly changed. For people who live in Chapelizod, it will now be necessary to take two buses to get into Dublin city. There will be no other means of doing so.

The changes to the routes have meant that people who are reliant on the bus to go to medical facilities in, for example, Nutgrove in the Dublin South-Central constituency, must now take two buses. This will mean there will be more car journeys. The last change made in Chapelizod resulted in 176 more car journeys being made weekly. This is not helping us to reach our climate targets and or achieve our ambitions in this regard, and the Minister for Transport needs to be answerable for this situation. I ask, therefore, that he be brought into the House to be answerable for the changes in the Dublin Bus routes.