John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will ask about transport next. Waterford is where I know best and where I have lived for all of my life. It is obviously an area targeted for significant growth in the national planning framework. It achieved 10% growth in the last census. However to speak to transport, the metropolitan transport strategy underwent consultation and was published in December, I think. A really good document was produced. Unfortunately, as my colleague Deputy Higgins pointed out, the perception nine months on is that it is a document, and where is the progress in some of the fantastic initiatives outlined in it? Yes, we now have a bike scheme in place but where is the investment in BusConnects? The document stated there will be an 84 km cross-city network, 9 km of orbital, 7 km of radial, and 75 new buses. These are all in the documents that were produced but they are not there. Looking at a city such as Waterford, the fifth biggest urban centre in the country, and looking at forward development, there are areas that are developing in terms of the houses being built that are not serviced by any bus network, like Kilbarry Road for example.

How do we square what we are talking about in the context of housing targets, what we are doing and what we are not delivering on the ground?