Ms Anne Graham:

We will resort to CPOs if required. The level of funding that has been bandied about is higher than we would have put forward. We had said that it would be in the tens of thousands in compensation per property but it is based on the location and value of the property and the extent of what is being purchased.

What we were looking at and what is being proposed today is the core bus corridor network. That did not come out of the ether. It was always planned as part of the strategy for the greater Dublin area and these routes were identified in the strategy. When the strategy was being developed, the local authorities were very much involved. The corridors would always have been identified as the core ones that need improvement in terms of the bus infrastructure.

I refer to the network issues. This is part of the BusConnects programme. The latter is programme of works of which the bus corridors is one element. The network is another important part of it and we will undertake consultation on that. To whatever extent we can, we will engage with the committee before that consultation begins. There are a number of elements which are complementary but which all support each another. One way or another, whatever the network is, we need to improve bus journey times on these core corridors. Doing so will benefit the entire network of services and we need to make it attractive so that more people will use the bus and public transport and that those who currently use cars will transfer to buses. That is the only way to do it. We have a limited amount of road infrastructure available for public transport. We have budgets setting out what we can do for the next ten years and what we are putting forward for discussion is whether this is the best way forward for our bus network for the future.