Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

On public transport, particularly in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire where we are fortunate to have both the DART and the QBCs, unfortunately, while we are trying to encourage people to use public transport, this is all right as long as one lives adjacent to the DART line or a QBC. However, if one lives half way between both, the only way to use public transport is to either drive or get a lift in a car, parking it in a housing estate, or go by shanks mare. At times, in the middle of winter, to ask people to walk up to four miles is not conducive to encouraging them to use public transport. Has the Minister any proposals to introduce a feeder service such as the small Imp buses to bring people to and from either the QBCs or the DARTs? They could run in a circular fashion and would be very attractive, particularly if we are going to have integrated ticketing, as I hope we will. In the event, one ticket could be used for the feeder service and the DART or QBC journey.

On another issue, would the Minister kindly contact local authorities and prevent them from introducing pay and display tickets in public car parks where they are charging people €5 a day. Again, this is no encouragement for people to use public transport — €25 a week for some people out of taxed income, together with their fare does not encourage them to use public transport.

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