Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Strachan is welcome to his new role. I thank him for his opening statement. His role is not so much hands-on as it is about policy, direction, steering the ship and keeping it on an even keel. We need to establish our priorities and Mr. Strachan mentioned a number of them. I would like more detail on the priority being given to metro north, which has been a bugbear around this place for over 20 years. It has been a long time talked about but nothing has happened. The main airport in Ireland, Dublin Airport, is one of the few airports in the world without a train or underground connection. It is something we need to get resolved with some speed. Will Mr. Strachan comment on that, as well as on work happening in the city to provide dedicated bus and cycle lanes? There is a certain level of competition between the two of them because space is at a premium.

Mr. Strachan mentioned rural transport. I live in a very rural area and many small villages and towns have benefited hugely from Local Link. We all deal with people looking for local authority housing and there were places where nobody would take a local authority house because they would have to have a car. There was no other way of getting there. Local Link has changed that somewhat, though it is still a patchy service in some places. Will Mr. Strachan comment generally on how much further that can go and how fast?

The Vice Chair mentioned the sweet spot we need to find. How much can we, as more and more people use public transport, bring the cost down and make it more attractive to people, while providing a decent service? A big issue for many is that the service is not frequent enough. Sometimes as it gets busier it lacks reliability, in that buses are full and they drive past. We hear of ghost buses in many areas.