Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

BusConnects Bus Corridors Project: Discussion

1:30 pm

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I thank Ms Graham for her presentation. It is interesting that the three Deputies representing Dublin North-West are in attendance. That is a measure of the importance of this issue to the residents of the Dublin North-West constituency. That is the case because Dublin North-West is the only constituency in the greater Dublin area that is entirely dependent on buses. We are very familiar with buses, and down through the years the bus services have been honed time and again to suit local need. It is true to say that the constituency of Dublin North-West has an excellent bus service. We need more buses during the morning peak period but apart from that, it is an excellent service and it provides fantastic access to various parts of the city, and the residential areas also are very well served. That is really important because there is a very large older population and there are many people with disabilities as well in that constituency. There is very good access in all respects.

With any major project, there are winners and losers. When it comes to the Dublin North-West constituency, there would be more losers than winners under these proposals. That is not what it was supposed to be about. It is supposed to be about improving bus services and journey times for everybody.

We know from the analysis on this and from Ms Graham's presentation today that the big problem in the greater Dublin area as regards public transport is traffic congestion. I do not know why the NTA is not dealing with that issue in a more radical way. Why do the routes have to change? I cannot understand that from the point of view of the north west part of the city, because the routes are very good at present. What is needed is greater priority to be given to those routes and more road space to be provided for buses. Has Ms Graham considered in any detail the possibility of restricting traffic while maintaining the existing bus routes, which are very popular? I wonder why the NTA has not taken that approach.

When the NTA came out with proposals on the network, as others have said, there was a huge reaction to it. That is mainly because what is being proposed would result in a poorer service than what people enjoy at present. That is not something people will accept. People expected to see an outcome from that first round of consultation on the network before the NTA would get into the business of looking at the corridors. The decisions in relation to the network will dictate where the corridors will go. The NTA has not done that and has not come back to the public with a response on the proposed changes to the network and that is why this is being seen as a fait accompli. The NTA is not listening to what the 30,000 people have said and is ploughing ahead with the original plan. That does not inspire the people to have confidence in the consultative process being meaningful. Will Ms Graham explain why she has not completed the first round before going into the detail of proposed bus corridors? At present all buses going down the Swords Road and the Drumcondra Road serve O'Connell Street. Perhaps they should not all serve O'Connell Street but under the NTA plans none of the them will serve O'Connell Street any longer. That will have serious implications for shoppers and for people who want to get into the area around O'Connell Street. It will also have implications for the business community on the north side of the city, which is struggling. If the NTA is going to bring about a situation where people have poorer access to those shopping areas in the north side of the city, I do not see how that is a win for anybody? As part of the proposed plan it runs all the buses down Gardiner Street and away from the city centre. Now the NTA is consulting about having a corridor down Gardiner Street. Does that mean the NTA is assuming the Gardiner Street network changes are going ahead? Does Ms Graham understand that people are concerned about this as they think it is a fait accompli. We need an explanation as to why the NTA did not wait until members of the public have the outcome of the first round of the consultation process.

Another issue is the forum for discussing the issues. There are many different local issues affecting people along the entire route of the corridor. It seems to be entirely unwieldy and ineffective to try to have one forum for the long corridor such as the Swords corridor. The request is to split the corridor and have one forum for the route within the M50 and another forum for the area outside of the M50. I hope Ms Graham might accede to those requests. The other concern is about what these forums are about. Are they a way of going through the motions of giving people a platform or are they actually going to mean something in terms of people having an input which can have an impact on the proposed changes. We would like to know more about the role of the forum and its terms of reference Will it be possible for people who engage in those forums to effect any change or is it just about the detail of a proposal that has been already set in stone?

I now wish to raise a concern that was brought to my attention today by the Dublin Cycling Campaign who are extremely critical of the cycling proposals. The Dublin Cycling Campaign are alleging that those proposals do not meet any of the international standards in respect of safe cycling. They are looking for a meeting with Ms Graham, which seems absolutely reasonable. If there is to be an investment in providing new cycling facilities - they are desperately needed in the city as cycling is a very precarious activity at present, which should not be the case - we should be doing everything we possibly can to make cycling easier and safer for people. The regular cyclists who are involved in the campaign are saying that the standards the NTA are using are not acceptable. They are looking to meet Ms Graham separately. They have been told they can engage with the NTA only through the forums. That strikes me as not acceptable. If the standards the NTA are using are not up to scratch, surely that is an issue that should be dealt with from the very start. I appeal to Ms Graham to agree to an early meeting with the Dublin Cycling Campaign.

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