Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to witnesses for being absent for the past few minutes but we were accepting a petition relating to a minimum passing distance for cyclists of 1.5 m. Cycling can play a huge role in preventing congestion. The number of people who cycle in our capital city has doubled in the past two years but the funding allocated by the Department for cycling projects has decreased by almost 50%. I am interested in what Mr. Keegan has to say about the capacity to roll out a greater cycling infrastructure in the capital.

Mr. Faughnan was right that congestion is not exclusive to the Luas crossover although it has compounded the congestion problem. Congestion has been getting worse in recent years and there has been a lack of preparedness on the part of key stakeholders in regard to the crossover. We are failing our citizens miserably and robbing them of their lives as they are spending more and more time commuting to and from work. It affects other local authority areas in Dublin and not just the city centre, and it also affects areas such as my own constituency of Longford-Westmeath. People are now getting up at 5.30 a.m. to come to work in the city and they do not get home until after 7.30 p.m. or 8 p.m. They do not get to see their children getting up in the morning and they do not get to put them to bed in the evening.

Mr. Keegan said he had hoped that An Bord Pleanála would have made a decision on the College Green crossover before the opening of the cross-city line but why had Dublin City Council not submitted its application in plenty of time, to enable it to get a decision? Instead, it lived on a wing and a prayer and it hoped that An Bord Pleanála would reply in time. This is a massive investment of public money in infrastructure in the capital city. Mr. Keegan also said he did not have responsibility for the rerouting of buses and that is correct, as the NTA has that responsibility. There is a lack of joined-up thinking and it is not okay for one arm of the State to blame another arm of the State for the fact that this has not been done. Planning permission was submitted for the Luas cross-city in 2010, almost eight years ago, and it did not come up overnight like a mushroom. I am sure the plans were prepared many years in advance of 2010 but we have not responded correctly at all. In correspondence sent to us two days ago, eight additional bus routes were referred to as being rerouted but last night the news stated that ten were being rerouted. It appears that it is being made up as we go along. Why was it eight on Monday but ten on Tuesday evening?

There is a finite amount of road space in the area of which we are speaking. Is a decision going to be taken? Some €380 million's worth of tracks are in the ground and are not going to be taken up. What is the overarching plan to deal with this? One third of Dublin Bus traffic goes through this area. That is one third of the 140 million passengers who use the service on an annual basis. Is the plan to remove buses altogether from the area? If it is, let us be upfront and honest with people about it.

Dublin Bus is agile and has the ability to respond. Can Mr. Coyne tell us how many additional buses there have been in the fleet in recent years? It was said that there were 100 but my understanding is that a significant percentage of those are replacement buses and not new buses. What do the witnesses think about the possibility of the establishment of one body with overall responsibility for traffic management in our capital city? It is not good enough for one side to blame the other and to shift the responsibility to someone else and it does not wash with the general public.

I welcome the two taxi representatives. They have a pivotal role to play, particularly for the business community visiting Dublin and for tourists, who may not be aware of the various public transport options and hail a taxi because they have confidence that the taxi can get them to their destination with relative ease. How do they think this issue can be addressed?