Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I found the Minister of State's response rather depressing. It was the same stuff I had heard from Dublin Bus when I asked it about the savage cutbacks to bus services across Dublin. I remind the Minister of State that before the general election, a policy document suggested "the bus remains the only public transport option with the short and medium term capacity to meet the growing transport needs of an increasing urban population". It referred to the "need to dramatically reform our bus networks to increase capacity, frequency and attractiveness as a public transport option". It correctly pointed out that for every bus taken off the road, 90 cars went on the road. In that context, I ask the Minister of State to scrap the Dublin Bus network review immediately. Despite its innocent name, the review is nothing but a savage, unjust and counter-productive onslaught on bus services across the city. It will result in 200 buses being removed from the bus network and 200 jobs being lost. It will cause immense suffering among the elderly, the disabled, schoolchildren and low-income families. As part of the review, some 23 routes are being scrapped, while the frequency of dozens of other routes is being reduced. As a result of these cuts, there will be an additional 2,000 cars on the road. In their pre-election manifestos the Government parties stated we needed more buses to take cars off the road.

I appeal to the Minister of State, if he is serious about his commitment to the bus network, to give a commitment to scrap the review immediately, reinstate bus services and reverse the cuts that have affected the most vulnerable people in our society, including the elderly. Perhaps he is looking for the money needed to reverse the €30 million cut in the Dublin Bus subvention. I have heard a figure of €25 million bandied about in the context of the forthcoming visits of President Obama and the Queen. We should not bother bringing President Obama and the Queen here. Instead, we should use the €25 million to increase the subvention to Dublin Bus. Would the money not be far better spent in that way?

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