Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)

As a north County Dublin woman and a representative for Fingal I am hugely focused on transport. I will talk about communication and transparency. In terms of parliamentary questions there is a distinct lack of responsiveness from the NTA and Irish Rail in particular. It is not as bad from Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. Typically, I am getting responses from them in a month or six weeks. I have had some that have taken three months. I am now spending quite a bit of time continuing to follow up with them, and it is simply not good enough. In addition, the NTA is supposed to publish its quarterly reports on its website. However, so far this year only quarter 1 has gone up. To my mind that is an administrative exercise. I do not understand why they are not up there within a week or two of the quarter ending. I would appreciate if the Department would emphasise to the bodies under its aegis the importance of promptly responding to our parliamentary questions and publishing the quarterly reports on its website. They should be open and transparent for the public.

I echo Deputy McAuliffe's comments on metro. I know the Department and the Minister are actively progressing it. As someone who is from north County Dublin, I welcome that. However, will they confirm if the dedicated body that will be set up will be subject to the audit of the C and AG? Will this committee have remit to summon that body here? Similarly, will the operating company be audited by the C and AG, and will we also have remit?