Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

An efficiency review of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann was initiated in June 2008, arising out of concerns that the State bus companies were not using their fleets to best of their abilities. This was a narrow review. We should be examining public transport as distinct from buses. In Dublin we are fortunate to have Luas, DART and bus services but none operates in tandem with the other. Until we start to use a bus, and Luas or DART for parts of a journey we will not encourage more people out of cars. The most recent announcement that Dublin Bus is cutting back its service is horrific. In one breath we ask people to cooperate in reducing CO2 emissions so that Ireland can meet its targets — I chair an Oireachtas committee which examines this issue — and in the next breath we cut the bus services. Transport will be the biggest contributor to increased CO2 emissions. We will have to pay penalties for failure to meet the targets we have agreed at EU level.

We must decide whether we want a proper public transport system. If Dublin Bus is not in a position to provide that service we should bite the bullet and offer routes to the private sector to replace those Dublin Bus can no longer support.

The Acting Chairman, Deputy O'Connor, who comes from Tallaght, will appreciate how important a local transport network is. There is a strong suggestion that from 1 March the No. 111 bus from Loughlinstown to Dún Laoghaire will be taken off the route. The route was designed to bring people from the Dún Laoghaire DART station to their homes away from the DART line, as far as Loughlinstown. It also brings people to the DART service in the morning. If the link is taken away more people will drive.

The State and the taxpayer have funded an expensive DART system and a Luas network, running to Cherrywood but the bus company has decided to take away the bus that links these wonderful networks. How will people get to these other services? The common response is that Dublin Bus is in competition with the DART and the Luas. What a strange way to think. Dublin Bus should not compete with the DART and the Luas; they should support each other.

Loughlinstown is a developing area and it is anticipated that there will be a population of more than 30,000 people in Cherrywood with 18,000 jobs forecast. Residents there also need to get to and from hospitals and schools. There is a health centre which will be completely cut off. There are several schools in the area and a FÁS training centre but the bus company is removing a service. This causes one to despair, to say the least. Unfortunately, the Minister of State present is not responsible for this tragedy but maybe he will pass on a message to his colleague, the Minister for Transport, to the effect that he should immediately introduce legislation to reform bus licensing.

Where is the Dublin Transportation Authority? Why has that not been urgently put on a statutory basis? Instead of reducing the number of buses, let Dublin Bus have a more efficient timetable and not duplicate services on one route. Why do all the buses trundle through O'Connell Street, around Parnell Square and down the other side, blocking the whole city? Why can they not go to a certain point and have a free service circulating in the centre city at all times, which would take all the buses out of O'Connell St. and reduce the traffic and reduce CO2 emissions? Before Dublin Bus lets people go let us have a comprehensive review of the overall public transport system in the Dublin area, and my area of south Dublin, where we are fortunate to have a Luas, DART and bus service. We need to have joined up thinking, and we should not let management in these organisations regard each company as being in competition with the others. They are there to provide an efficient service that will get people to work in the morning, home in the evening, and allow them to know what time their buses are arriving and that will connect with the DART when it is leaving.

I call on the Minister of State to urge his colleague to examine this matter before Dublin Bus destroys any joined up way of thinking, so that we are certain to use public transport, be it the bus, the train, the DART or the Luas.

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