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

I welcome the representatives from the National Transport Authority, NTA, here today. The opportunity to have this engagement is welcome. For the most part, BusConnects offers huge potential for a positive effect and an opportunity to enhance and improve the bus service that is currently operating in Dublin. As Ms Graham quite rightly said, the service has evolved over a period of several decades, although I think Dublin Bus did carry out a reorganisation of the routes in the early 2000s, so there has been some progress in recent years. It would be wrong of us not to acknowledge that.

I am struck by the point Ms Graham made that a public survey was made available and more than 12,000 people responded to it. To me, that indicates the pivotal role that Dublin Bus plays in transporting people around our capital. It is terribly important that this consultation process engages with the people who use this service. I welcome the fact that the NTA has extended the consultation process by two weeks to 28 September. However, the month of August is a write-off for a variety of reasons, such as school holidays and people travelling abroad. Moreover, unless the witnesses can change this today, we still do not know the times and venues of the public meetings at which people can tease out the various bus routes. Given these facts, I think there needs to be flexibility around the date of 28 September. That is something the NTA should bear in mind. If it does not see the same level of interaction that it did previously, the NTA should certainly be flexible around extending that further.

I think the NTA needs to very quickly publish the dates and venues of its engagements with communities. To my mind, it should have been able to do this already. I have heard a figure of 18 locations. Perhaps the witnesses can correct that. I do not think that is enough. I think the process needs to extend to every part of the greater Dublin area as well - Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and all the areas served by Dublin Bus. There needs to be a very strong presence on the ground. People need to be able to go in and interact with the representatives of Dublin Bus.

I have gone through the website on a number of occasions. It has been suggested to me that if it had a Google Maps add-on people could use the site to navigate the proposed routes, as opposed to merely looking at the maps. It might make it an awful lot simpler for people to engage with the process.

I would like to hear some reassurances that this is not a box-ticking exercise and really is about engagement with the people it is going to affect. Moreover, I would like reassurance that if a huge area of concern is identified it will be possible to change some of the proposals. For example, most of the direct city services from commuter towns such as Balbriggan, Skerries, Swords and even Dunshaughlin have all been eliminated. That has taken place even though there is a huge demand in the morning and evening, reflected in the number of people using the services. A witness said that additional services would be provided at peak hours to limit overcrowding. Perhaps that is an opportunity to look at retaining some of these services, for which there is quite clearly a huge demand.

It was said that the choices report came about as a result of consultation between the NTA, Dublin Bus officials and Dublin City Council officials. Were any of the bus drivers, who engage with service users on a daily basis, consulted or made part of that process?

I hope this works and I am certainly not wishing that it will not work but it may be that changes are introduced and we actually notice an increase in the number of people going back to their cars. People have become used to getting on to a bus and going from one point to a second point without the need to change over.