Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

It is interesting the Minister says, as regards buses, that he wants market opening. The public wants buses and it does not care who owns or operates them. If the Minister goes to Westmoreland Street this evening between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock he will see hundreds of people being turned away from buses because they are full. That is happening on a daily basis. It is being repeated in the morning all over the city of Dublin.

The Minister is changing the goalposts. He promised under the national development plan to provide a certain number of buses to Dublin Bus. He still owes them 180 buses before the end of this year, as the figures show. He has welched on that undertaking. The Government was supposed to provide funding for those extra buses and has failed to do that. The Minister has 11 months left to honour that commitment, if he intends to do so. Is the Minister aware that three new quality bus corridors have been created by Dublin Bus in the last year on which there are no buses? The road space has been provided, the white lines have been painted and the signs are up but there are no buses because the Minister continues to stall on this issue. He has failed to provide the additional buses that were promised.

It is time to end the excuses. People are sick and tired of the fact that they cannot travel to work or move around the city because there are not enough buses to do so. When will the Minister deal with the immediate situation? It is all very well to have grand plans for the next 15 years but we need solutions now to Dublin's traffic gridlock. In the short term and for the foreseeable future, that solution must be bus-based. When will the Minister provide the buses?

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