John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of points to make.

The CEO needs to consider television and radio advertisements, if the issue has not already been considered. It is big. Dublin Bus has stated it conducted a review in 2011 that was almost equally as big. It is the second major review in a decade, but it is significant.

I reinforce all of the points made by Senator John Dolan. I am pleased he got to make them. There are penalties for connecting and they will have to be addressed at final report stage. They will come up in the public consultation stage. They will affect people with disabilities and people who have challenges with mobility, not necessarily older people. There is a penalty for having to disembark and connect with another bus service.

I like the idea of spines which I welcome. I have used the example of the 15 route, the service that serves a lot but not all of my area. Traditionally, if I hopped off the bus at Rathmines to go into a shop or the bank, I would have had to wait like an eejit for the next 15 bus to come along because 12 buses could pass me and I would not have been sure where they would have ended up. Under this system, it would be the A spine; therefore, I would know where any bus with the letter "A" on it would take me. That is very welcome and good news for commuters. People are going to be challenged. If one takes the far reaches of the constituency and beyond, for example, buses coming from Blessington, there will be a lot of connections in The Square. There are some pluses in that there will finally be a connection from Ballycullen, Knocklyon and Scholarstown serving the Luas red line. That is very much to be welcomed, but I have raised an issue which the NTA is taking up, namely, the lack of use of two really good quality bus corridors, QBCs, on Ballycullen Road and Firhouse Road which connect with the A spine on the Tallaght Road. In addition, one does not have the entire length of the N81 as a QBC, but it could be done very easily and it would also add efficiency.

I am not a member of the committee, but the challenge for it is whether it embraces the concept of BusConnects in principle. I do not wish to dictate to it, but that is the question it has to answer. SIPTU embraces it, but the NBRU has a lot of questions about it. I look forward to interaction with its members afterwards.

I have raised with the NTA the issue of localised park and ride facilities. I know that it has plans for large park and ride facilities on the fringes of the city, but there is a need for localised park and ride facilities to encourage those people who are a little further from bus routes to access them.

There is real concern about the withdrawal of services from housing estates. That issue is going to come up in more detail in the public consultation process. We are reflecting these concerns and there will be an opportunity to tease out the issue.

We must acknowledge what Dublin Bus is doing and what it has done with the network. Like the union representatives, I am a champion of the company and will defend it to the hilt, not just for the sake of it but also because it is a company that has turned itself around. It has an excellent culture, CEO and staff who deliver. It was back on the road first after the snow, quicker than any other form or mode of public transport. It is the most flexible public transport mode we have. As the infrastructure is developed for the interconnections, I hope it will provide things drivers do not have such as basic bathroom facilities when they stop. It is so easy to overlook such an issue.

That leads me to another question. I think it is going to be really important, given the content of the NBRU's submission, that the other stakeholders engage with the NBRU. It should not leave it exclusively to Dublin Bus. I would like to see the NTA engage with the NBRU. There are many worthy issues raised in its submission, but having looked at the BusConnects proposal, I can see that there are some areas that require face to face engagement in order to explain them. I also think the NTA needs to meet the drivers, the front-line staff. We have talked about people with disabilities, customers and people with special needs, but it would be worthwhile and is necessary as part of the BusConnects process to speak to the men and women who are delivering the service every day in winning hearts and minds.