Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Stillorgan quality bus corridor, QBC, was the first ever QBC. A change is coming on that route in December. I remember when there were three lanes of traffic on the N11, which were then funnelled into two in Donnybrook village. Now it is two lanes being funnelled into one, which is not as bad. Again, it is about taking out cars. The impact of taking a lane of cars out of Donnybrook village in 1999 was apparent to most road users at the time, and certainly most drivers, yet it works. We have seen gigantic levels of traffic on the 46A, 145 and 155 routes, the latter two of which I do not think even existed as those routes prior to the opening of the QBC. There is work to be done there. All the route numbers are changing, with the 46A route due to finish on 8 or 9 December. That will be a shock to a lot of people. These are very heavily trafficked routes. It is about communicating the changes well in order that people realise the route is not gone but is just being renamed and new routes are being introduced. A lot of the S4, S6, S8 routes and so on are quite good but not everybody may know about them. What is being done is progress but we must make sure we communicate that progress. QBCs work but only where they extend the whole way along a route. It cannot be a stop-start situation, with a little length of strip on one part before it changes at the lights. Decent QBCs work. They promote and justify higher density. However, there is work to be done in this area.

I mentioned camera monitoring of red lights. Will the Minister outline his thoughts on the establishment of a transport police force? Progress in this regard is an evolving process. The Dublin Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party group looked at this a long time ago. The response in an earlier period of this Government's term to the possibility of establishing a transport police unit was "Not really". Now it seems to be more accepted that there is scope for such an establishment, whether within An Garda Síochána, which I probably would favour, or, if it has to be, as a separate force. It should cover public transport and also perhaps road safety and road monitoring, not just for 30 minutes per day but involving people whose full-time job focuses on transport measures, all the enforcement and, in particular, antisocial behaviour. If public transport is not viewed as safe or experienced as safe, it does not get the traction we want. We know it does get traction when that issue is addressed.

In terms of bus capacity, any time I have cycled down the quays, which is much easier to do now, I see very significant numbers of people waiting for buses. That is the case pretty much all the time. I am not saying it is a bad thing; in fact, it is a good thing. However, my question is whether our transport network has enough buses to cope with the increased demand. The population has increased by 50% or thereabouts in the past 25 years from approximately 3.5 million to more than 5 million. It is a very significant jump. We have a much bigger working population, with 1 million more people in the workplace now than there were ten years ago. The increase is from about 1.8 million to 2.8 million. Have we done enough to make sure that when we ask people to use public transport, it is there for them? I am not just talking about the ghost bus issue but the need to ensure that when the bus turns up, there is a seat for most people most of the time. We do not expect that at rush hour but most people would like to be able to sit down. Everything in the public service performance report is good but we need more ambition. What is being done in this regard?