Mr. Thomas O'Connor:

Mr. Gaston said he wanted the new inner orbital O service to be a jump on, jump off service. We had that back in the 1990s. It was the hail and ride yellow and red imp buses. The slogan on the back of those buses referred to Dublin Bus serving the entire community. We are now going to do the same thing except this time we will not be serving the entire community. I will outline what is indicative of the plan. There is a garage in north County Dublin at Harristown which provides many bus services at present. Under this proposal, not one bus will serve it so bus drivers will have to use their car to get to the bus garage. There are many similar issues throughout the plan. It has not been thought through. Howth is a big tourist attraction but the direct bus, the No. 31, will be taken away. It will be local services. In the case of the national children's hospital, a direct bus will be gone from many of the estates. I could spend an hour going through the plan and dealing with little details such as those. I do not believe proper thought has been put into it and the impact it will have on people.

I am a bus driver and have been driving for 20 years. I drive the No. 1 bus. There are two ladies who suffer from MS in Larkhill and they spend their day going up and down on the bus to Sandymount. They have to get the No. 44 out of Larkhill to the road and then the No. 1. That is their entertainment and how they get out. They will be stranded under this proposal. They will have no bus. How many thousands of such people are suffering in silence because they are unable to attend public consultations or use online surveys?