Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

Traffic signals need to respond to a bus full of people and speed it through the lights. While this is not as easy to do as it might be with a Luas vehicle, Dublin City Council needs to give more priority to buses when it programmes traffic lights.

We also need to put in place physical measures. The bus gate in College Green is not a gate but simply a way to give buses their fair share of road space, by taking cars off the green. It is crazy in 2009 to have four lanes of car traffic going through College Green while buses are stuck behind cars with one occupant. It is crazy that it can take 40 minutes for a bus to get from Parnell Square to Stephen's Green. One will not get on a bus if a short journey takes that long, one will walk or take the car because one can do other business that way. We need leadership from all parties in the Chamber to make that bus gate happen. That is up to the Fine Gael and Labour Deputies and councillors on Dublin City Council.

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