Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Perhaps the Acting Chairman will let me know when I have two minutes remaining.

I welcome that time has been provided to discuss this report given the critical impact it will have on bus services across Ireland and the current massive crisis occurring in the public transport sector due to the looming threat to take more than 300 buses off the road with the loss of approximately 600 jobs at Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann.

As a bus user and public representative, representing thousands of bus passengers, drivers and other public transport workers, I have always strongly promoted bus services that are efficient, safe for passengers and workers, cheap, passenger focused and provide a world class service. However, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, and his Green Party colleagues have been disgracefully disingenuous in many of their public comments on the Deloitte report and have plainly decided to use this new report as a stick with which to beat Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann.

What is worse is that they are also attempting to use the Deloitte report as a smokescreen to cover up their appalling record on funding, maintaining and protecting public transport facilities. While Deloitte has provided an interesting analysis of potential changes to Dublin Bus, the critical issue is that the Fianna Fáil-Green Government is intent on overseeing a massive programme of cutbacks to bus services across Ireland.

The scale of the cutbacks currently proposed for Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann represent an unprecedented attack on public transport services and structures. Bus Éireann has announced that approximately 300 jobs will be lost and 150 buses will be cut from its fleet. It has now been confirmed that key services to be withdrawn include routes from Galway to Tralee, Galway to Lennane and Athlone to Cork. There will also be a reduction in services on the Dublin to Ardcath, Kilkee to Ennis, Kildysert to Shannon and Tuam to Athlone routes, a reduction in euro-line services between Rosslare and Cork-Waterford and London and Sligo and a reduction in the Lough Derg district service, the Sligo town service and the Sligo-Dublin to Drumsna service.

At a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport last week the CEO of Bus Éireann, Mr. Tim Hayes, told members that the axing of 150 buses includes the loss of 25 buses in Dublin, 30 in Cork, 15 in Waterford, four in Tralee, 15 in Galway, three in Athlone, four in Sligo, one in Ballina and 12 in Dundalk. At least 120 buses are to be removed from the Dublin Bus fleet with a loss of 290 jobs. In a briefing by Dublin Bus last week, it was confirmed that the cross city No. 172 route will be completely axed and that the 56A which runs from the city centre to Tallaght will also be cut. It is planned that this service will now run between Crumlin and Tallaght only.

Bus frequencies will also rise from on average every ten to 15 minutes to on average every 12 to 17 minutes. Dublin Bus stated that the full programme of cuts has not yet been finalised and that there will be further revisions to bus services and frequencies in the greater Dublin area in the coming months. However, further details are emerging on the impact of other specific routes throughout the Dublin Bus network, which starkly highlights the savage nature of the programme of public transport cutbacks. It has been reported that routes 1, 2, 3, 19, 13, 13A, 7, 11, 11A, 45, 121 and 122 may have services cut by up to 10%. Dozens of peak time eurobuses may also be withdrawn from the Harristown, Phibsboro, Conyngham Road, Summerhill and Clontarf garages. These buses provide a critical backup service on routes throughout the city during morning and evening rush hours.

Heavily patronised commuter routes such as the 51, 51D, 49, 15, 65 and 77 routes may now have reduced frequencies at peak times. When the series of cutbacks was first announced, the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, promised to protect peak time services as a matter of priority. However, the withdrawal of eurobus services is at odds with the Minister's worthless commitment earlier on to protect commuters and workers who rely on the bus to get to work or school at critical morning and evening peak times.

Last week, on RTE radio residents of Ballyfermot expressed their devastation at the prospect of a reduced bus service. Ballyfermot commuters and workers have no other public transport option, given they have no access to the Luas, the DART or metro services. The same arguments apply for proposed cuts in bus services in the Finglas area, in Ballymun and in Whitehall. Locals in Ballyfermot highlighted how the reduction in some services, for example the 206 route, will leave local seniors, especially, bereft of a reliable and regular bus service.

The nitelink service has also been cancelled from Monday to Thursday and the last weekend nitelink buses will now leave at 3 a.m. instead of 4.30 a.m. as has been the case. This decision will have an especially negative effect on city centre pubs and clubs. The patrons of such venues rely on public transport and these venues are already under severe financial pressure given the current economic circumstances.

One newspaper estimated that as many as 1,000 scheduled journeys will be lost because of the cutbacks. The cutbacks will devastate urban and rural communities throughout Ireland and will disproportionately hammer low income communities and families, senior citizens, children of school-going age and other vulnerable citizens who are totally reliant on the bus service.

The loss of approximately 600 jobs at both companies has had a similarly devastating effect on the community of bus drivers in both companies. My colleague, Deputy Tommy Broughan, has been inundated with calls from young bus men and women who were shocked and shattered to be handed their notice and told they are due to finish up on 28 February. Many of these young workers were only taken on in the past year or two. Many had left other secure employment, because they believed they had a long-term future at Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. Most have described to me and to my colleagues the terror they are experiencing at being unable to pay the mortgage or provide for the family now that they face unemployment in these bleak economic times.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport, Deputy Tommy Broughan asked Mr. Joe Meagher of Dublin Bus and Mr. Tim Hayes of Bus Éireann why a voluntary redundancy scheme had not first been introduced at both companies and why new drivers were still being recruited last year, when it was clear that 2009 would be a very difficult financial year for both companies. A voluntary severance scheme should have been considered.

In essence these cutbacks make no sense socially, economically or environmentally. They go against any efforts to get the economy back on track as they will reduce worker mobility, the attractiveness of the State for investment and the economy's competitiveness. Cutbacks of this magnitude are also totally at odds with national transport, environmental and climate change policies of moving consumers out of cars and into public transport to reduce ever-increasing transport greenhouse gas emissions.

The Labour Party has long recognised the critical role of buses in the Irish public transport system. We have often said that buses remain the workhorse of that system. Even the most optimistic forecasts do not envisage most of the Transport 21 projects coming on stream until after 2014. In a departmental briefing last year, following the 2009 budget, it appeared that metro west, the Lucan Luas and the red and green line Luas link-up projects had been effectively completely abandoned by the Government. There are also ongoing question marks over the Government's commitment to the completion of the Navan rail line, the western rail corridor and the light rail systems for Cork, Galway and Limerick. Now, we are told by the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, that all uncompleted public transport projects, apart from metro north, appear to be under grave threat of extinction. With Transport 21 in disarray, why are the Minister and his Green Party colleagues set on decimating one of our critical remaining networks of public transport services throughout the country, namely, the bus services? It is clear that even if the bulk of Transport 21 is completed, only buses can provide the core public transport services for commuters and workers in the interim period between now and then, that is presuming the programme is ever completed. Buses are the fastest, easiest, cheapest and most sustainable option for getting Dublin and the rest of the country moving and for tackling congestion and car dependence.

The Labour Party developed a land mark bus policy before the last general election, entitled Getting Dublin Moving. The policy has buses at its core. The Labour Party's long-standing policy on bus transport includes immediately adding 500 new buses to the Dublin Bus fleet; developing bus rapid transport services on key routes in Cork city and environs; fast-tracking park and ride facilities and express bus services for Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick; introducing real-time information at bus stops; implementing a €1 adult fare and a 50 cent fare for children in the greater Dublin area; replacing the travel pass with a new freedom card that would provide cheaper fares and more integration for commuters; and maintaining the Bus Éireann national network which services smaller towns and villages throughout Ireland.

The Labour Party has also long campaigned for the enhancement of bus infrastructure throughout the country. There has been some valuable advancement in the quality bus corridor network in Dublin and the green routes bus corridors in Limerick and Cork. However, the Labour Party believes we must go much further in this regard and ensure the completion of the planned Dublin Bus quality corridors network and that the Limerick and Cork green route bus corridors should be given priority. Expansion of the existing 13 quality bus corridors, QBCs, in Dublin must be given effect now to include the additional radial and orbital QBC projects that the quality bus network office has long proposed.

On account of the Labour Party's long-standing commitment to bus transport and given the Minister's ongoing lethargy in implementing key bus policies, such as the reform of the 1932 bus licensing law, I welcome the publication of the Deloitte review of the cost and efficiency of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. Undoubtedly, there are worthy proposals in the review. However, many of these proposals were already in the pipeline and were obvious to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of how the bus network operates. For example, the Labour Party has long advocated the introduction of one of the key proposals in the Deloitte review regarding real-time information systems.

Other valuable suggestions are contained in the document, such as the introduction of a simplified network with more co-ordinated services along core routes, the provision of more direct services to key centres of population, information campaigns by both companies, timetable re-design and the introduction of immediate running times to improve reliability and reduce the potential for the bunching of buses. The report also recommends key new technology systems such as automatic vehicle location, AVL, systems and the linking of AVL information to the traffic light management systems in Dublin, to provide further priority for buses.

The Minister and his predecessors have failed to act on the bus market in general. There have been many threats, promises and announcements of the Minister's intention to act but he has failed to do so. Now, in a cost-cutting exercise he is squeezing the budgets of the two bus companies. He does not seem to recognise that lessons can be learned from every other European capital. The cities that have good public transport systems subvent the costs of the system properly. The Green Party has been preaching this for years yet it will not take on board that lesson in government. The average subvention rate for bus services across Europe is 50%. Our rate is abysmally low. The lesson is clear; it is not possible to provide public transport services on the cheap.

If we want the country to be competitive and facilitate people's movement in an efficient manner and reduce our carbon footprint, the only solution is quality public transport. That is not possible unless the Government funds it adequately. This Minister and his predecessors have unfortunately failed to learn that lesson.

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