Ms Anne Graham:

We made a decision to separate the consultation and to start with a discussion document to show what the whole proposal was. We were concerned that we would get tied up in what were the difficulties associated with delivery of the bus corridor project rather than focusing on both sides of the project which include the benefits and what can be achieved in the overall network of bus corridors in the city region and not to focus on the difficult side, which was the gardens. That is why the decision was made. Learning a little from the MetroLink consultation, it was about giving the public some information about how this project was developing, rather than focusing on the details. It was very deliberate on our part to break it up into two phases - a discussion document initially and then detailed consultation to take place in September and October.

On the amendment of routes, this bus corridor proposal is required no matter what routes operate on it. These are the core bus corridors. One is always going to have a very frequent service level on these corridors no matter who is operating the services.

We have decided not to just provide BRT on three routes. This proposal will bring a BRT level of service to all of the 16 corridors. Much of the work that we had done on BRT fed into the core bus corridor project and we are proposing a BRT level of service in respect of frequencies on these core corridors.

When we talk about a service expansion, we are talking about the bus service for Dublin expanding. The decisions as to who will be operating these services post-2019 is still a decision for the authority to make. We will alert members that we will be consulting on a new Dublin Bus network, as in a network of bus services. This consultation will be commencing later next month.