Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here today. I have a question on the public transport subhead, the reallocation of funding and the additional capital. I think that the Minister of State said there was a shift of €29 million from capital to current expenditure.

It certainly is the case that there are increased numbers on public transport. I think it is a shared policy objective to encourage more people to use public transport. The Minister of State is from a commuter belt county, as am I, so he will be familiar with the challenges faced by high-frequency services into and out of this city. I can speak particularly of routes such as the 103 and the 105, which serve Ratoath and Ashbourne, and the 109 and NX, which serve Navan and Kells. We have heard about a number of factors. Our local councillors in County Meath spoke to representatives of the NTA and Bus Éireann yesterday. We have had representatives of those bodies before this committee many times through the years and we constantly get a picture of constraints or difficulties in terms of the recruitment and retention of drivers and mechanics and how that impacts on the fleet and, of course, congestion caused by the very considerable works and delays. There is huge frustration as a result of works in Ashbourne, for example, which have long over run. There is also congestion in the city, such as in Phibsborough and at The Halfway House on the N3. Will the proposals the Minister of State has announced address some of those issues? What engagement has he had with Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and others to address those concerns?

A general election is imminent and these are hugely important issues for people. I can give an example of a resident in Ashbourne who literally lives 150 m from the nearest bus stop. On paper, it should be an excellent service based on the timetable, but the resident has a secondhand or "new to them" car with N plates is parked in their drive. Why? It is because the family cannot rely on the service. The parents gave an example. They said they were away on holidays for two weeks. Their young fella works in the city and, of the ten days he had to go to work, he was late on eight days because he could not rely on the bus service. Even though the bus stop is 150 m from their house, it is no use to them because every time a bus reaches the bus stop, it is full and passes intending passengers.

Therefore, when he is getting the bus, he travels 2 km up the road to access the bus there. I am sure this is not news to the Minister of State and he is familiar with this picture. It is a problem for everybody concerned and it needs to be addressed. In these measures, does the Minister of State see improvement for the likes of that young man and commuters right across commuter belt?