Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response but I am not happy with it. It is clear to me that the Government has decided the resolution of this matter will be through the further diminution of services provided by the CIE companies. I spoke to two Fianna Fáil councillors in Dublin today, Mary Fitzpatrick and Paul McAuliffe, about cutbacks in public transport services in Dublin. Paul McAuliffe told me earlier this year Dublin Bus proposed new bus routes for the Finglas-East and Glasnevin areas. After circulating the proposed routes to local residents, he received a large number of angry responses. Following his intervention with a local campaign to protect the services, they managed to save the No. 19 bus route which provided services for Grove Park and Tolka Estate. There is still a real loss of service in these areas. Some areas will no longer have services that are direct cross-city or provide access to certain hospitals. Mary Fitzpatrick informed me that Broomebridge railway station still needs building and structural improvements, new customer shelters and seating on platforms, improvements in lighting and upgrades of station and approach road signage.

These are all the things the Minister of State referred to as part of the reduction process. Effectively we are going to downgrade our public transport infrastructure and we will damage our public transport network as a result. There is a group outside the gate which the Minister of State can meet on the way out if he wishes. They are from Roosky and Dromod and they are highlighting the fact that the Bus Éireann bus now bypasses those villages. They are putting it to anyone who is prepared to sit and talk that the reductions are impacting on the Bus Éireann network and that as the Government starts to chip away at the services, it is dismantling a network that has been put together over many generations. The Minister of State must try to protect what is in place and find whatever capacity he can to do so.

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